The World After the End
by insane-silentium
Summary: Revised:After some morons spread a plague, many people are dying. Now there's some apocalypse going on and the characters will have to deal with it. AU Fic. OCs. Slight Crackfic. Mega Crossover.
1. Prologue

**I know some [most] of you probably hate this story or think it's poorly written and I should stop writing it, but I can't help myself. I also feel the urge to post on the web or some shit like that. This is the first story I genuinely put effort into. Yes, I know the plot seems stupid, in fact, I can't help but feel ambivalent towards this fic. At the same time, since I put in so much effort, it doesn't seem right to not finish this. I also know that the first few chapters aren't great [I was young and stupid, I still am right now] it improves in the later chapters. At least I hope it does.**

**Why I chose to cross The Stand over with the things I did? I think I thought it was a great idea at the time. Again, that was me being young and stupid. I tend to cross things over with other things, even if it seems like they should not have come together. Things like crossing Atlas Shrug with the Dresden Files [I kind of wish someone would write a crossover like this], and some others. Yeah. [Seriously, someone needs to write the Dresden Files/Atlas Shrug crossover]. [Dark Towers and Dresden Files-hell yeah!]  
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**Also, many, I mean many, different series make an appearance in this fic. Some of them play a sort of significant role and others play minor roles. Things that already made an appearance (that I have written [my rough drafts])in this fic are Summer of the Swan, Foul Play, Anchorman, Discworld, the Slender Man, Candle Cove, and The Stand (obviously).**

**Things ill-fated to make an appearance are: The Simpsons, Towlie from South Park(possible halucination), Cthulhu (mentioned), Silver Streak, and whatever else I put in here. Also, mythical creatures exist, although how much of a role they play depends on my mood.**

** I might have to split this fic into three parts.**

**Also, some characters in this fic will be injured, sometimes severely injured and be fine and dandy the next chapter. That can all be explained with magic. Or discontinuity, or whatever! Maybe I forgot the injury and don't want to admit it. Almost all things can be explained by saying a wizard did it.  
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**OTZ**

**I also want to keep this fic rated T. **

**I apologize for any errors.  
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**So, here's the Prologue**

The man sneezed on Charlie Champion's face, not once but twice.

"Sorry 'bout that," the man said. "I think I must've gotten something or allergies." He wiped his nose on his shirt sleeves.

"That's fine," Champion said.

"How's the wife and child?"

"They're fine."

"I see. I haven't spoke to my wife ever since we split back in nineteen seventy-five; or was it seventy-six? She won't even let me talk to my daughter.

"I wanted to win custody of my girl, but that woman played everyone like fools. She'd put on this facade of sweetness and loving like a mother, but she was a wicked person. A manipulator.

"She lied to the court, and said that I had harmed my own child. How can I ever harm her? I love my daughter. And they believed her.

"They didn't believe me when I told them that she was the mean one. She used to throw objects at me, hit me while I slept, and threatened me, right in front of our own child.

"If she thought I was leaving, or she didn't get her way, she threatened to kill me or to kill herself!

"I only hope my girl didn't grow up to be like her mother. I would visit, but there's a restraining order against me."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Champion said. This conversation officially reached awkwardness. It's not every day someone opens up about their life to their coworker.

"Don't worry about it," Jose said. "I just, needed to get that off my chest."

He sneezed some more. "Anyways, have a nice day."

"You too," Champion said. He wiped spit off his face and decided that eating his food was not the best idea anymore. Well, he wasn't that hungry anyways.

That man would soon spread his illness to the other coworkers. It wasn't until it was too late, and practically everyone was dead, when Champion came to the startling realization, that things were very well fucked.

So, he did the only thing he could do, got his family and fled, all the while spreading the disease. If he had just stayed, then maybe it would have died with him. Ha! But if that happens then we wouldn't have this story. Story has conflict, and the illness is one of them. Hey, it's better than the whole Earth going kaboom or the universe deciding to stop existing (no idea how it would do that). Humans would all be dead in those story.

Him fleeing started a chain reaction, or maybe the reaction started way before that, of people getting sick—mostly on the west coast side, and dying.

Why did this happen? Some would ask. For protection, that's why. The disease was created to protect the people from them. Who's they? Other's would ask. The people on the other side. The invaders, the savages, the enemy. The one thing created to save them was the thing that destroyed them. What morons.

It's very tragic once one thinks about. Very tragic indeed, but it has happened before. It's been happening.

The man clothed in black smiled at his new (old) accomplishment.

He has been working so hard to get to where he's at. So very hard.

Way before the incident took place, he has been pulling the strings. Making deals (either for fame, beliefs, or for loved ones), inspiring, twisting them until they broke. Finding the broken and deceiving them, breaking them further. Yes, he has been very very busy.

It was worth it. Victory will be his. He can almost taste it.

Hehe. The people of this world would suffer. It's fun, fulfilling, to see other people suffer. To see them wrecked with insanity, terror, as they see the things that one should never see.

To see them lose all hope and surrender to him, only to find out that he betrayed them and would never ever care for them. He manipulated them.

This world was going to be the best world ever for him.


	2. A Chance Meeting

**_**Revised chapter. Combined one and two.  
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**_**Disclaimer: I do not own Foul Play, nor do I own the Stand. If I did, then I'd be rich. They belong to their respectful owners. Stand-Stephen King. Foul Play- Collin Higgins, and Paramount.**_**

**_**Review if you want. I think I might be an attention whore for reviews.**_**

__**Sorry for any grammar or spelling errors I might have missed. This story has no beta-reader.**__

__**I figure it was okay for me to repost this fanfic. I mean, there are fanfiction that horribly written, have Mary Sues, etc. If they can post their stories, so can I. Just like since the water has soap in it, and soap cleans things, that makes the water clean. Since the water is clean that makes it okay for me to drink it.  
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San Francisco August 1980.

This day would have been a normal one if it weren't for the fact that people were shooting each other and looting stores. But that's normal in some. People call those places really ghetto and/or gangsta. Since all of this was happening near Gloria Mundy's place, which was of course a spiffy looking Victorian apartment, she called Tony, who had helped her when she got mixed up in a plot to assassinate the Pope.

He quickly got dress, he was still asleep before Gloria called him, and sprinted up the stairs. Once he was outside of his houseboat and on the deck, he slowed down a bit so he won't slip and fall into the water. He slipped into the water anyways. Apparently, the water loves him so much, it couldn't let him leave without him falling into it. He swam to the deck and hauled himself up. All that was left for him to do was to go back to his houseboat and dry off. Which he did.

Once he was sort of dry and out of his nice houseboat, he successfully avoided falling into the water. The water already showed its love. It doesn't need to show it again. He searched for his car and found it parked between two others. He got inside his car and went to Gloria's apartment as fast as he can, breaking a few speeding laws while at it. Since he is a cop, it doesn't matter. He's also on vacation, but he ignored that fact. He can just explain that it's an emergency if a fellow officer caught him.

He heard gunshots somewhere in the distance, followed by yelling. He couldn't make out most of it, only "SAVE ME!", and he saw smoke in the distance. Very thick smoke. He'd hate to be the poor bloke who's over there.

This has got to be the worst riot he has ever seen. Other than that time '76, but that was more of a really bad bar fight over some football teams. Ah mob mentality. You'd think people would be smart since more people can help solve a problem but no, they just get stupider. Especially when alcohol is involve, and sex.

He parked on the street next to the faded yellow, Victorian apartment, then got out of his car to go inside the apartment. Once he's there, he saw Gloria watching the news, and sat down on the couch, deciding to watch with her.

"There seems to be a lot of people out here, in the streets," a woman, anchorwoman, with a slick, red dress suit said. She pointed behind her, where there was a crowd gathering. "As you can see, these people are thrown into complete chaos, all because of a flu. That flu goes by the name of Captain Trips."

"The flu does exist!" One person frantically yelled out, as if the people around him didn't know that fact already.

The crowd goes crazy anyways, becoming a riot. They would have become riled up eventually, regardless of the shouting man. It was only a matter of time. The riot police came in and pushed them back. Then a gun went off. It is not certain who fired the gun, but both sides started to fire at each. More so the riot police, for they were the ones with most guns. They also threw tear gas into the crowd and sprayed them with high powered hoses.

Gloria could have sworn that she saw a child running around, crying for his mother. He was sprayed by the hose as well. The water pushed him into a brick wall. Water dripped from his hair and clothes. Scrapes littered the poor boys hands and legs. He curled up into a fetal position and screamed.

A man jumped on the the guy who sprayed the child. The riot police saw the fellow comrade struggling, and promptly got out their batons and beat the man.

A couple of teenagers tried to attack the riot police with bats, but were shot down. Another teenager succeeded in actually hitting one of those police, but was then beaten down.

As they watch the scene unfold, Gloria had remembered that she promised Ms. Monk to go to the library and finish up some cleaning. Sure, there was a riot practically outside her home, but damn she made a promise and she was going to keep it.

^#I#love#this#line#break#I'm#going#to#marry#it#^

Now at the assassins' head quarter, which was a just crummy old apartment, I mean you would have expected them to be rich enough to afford something decent, but sadly they're not. One has to wonder what they spend most of their money on. Booze? Prostitutes? Really nice suits? Candy? Weapons? Well anyway back at the assassins' head quarter. The assassins were a unique group of people. The boss was an old man, about fifty or sixty, who wasn't quite bald but was getting there. He had black hair, but it's currently now graying. He wore a black tuxedo and had a nice black fedora hat rested on top of his head. His name is Rupert Stiltskin. Most people just call him "The Dwarf." Then there was a man who was in his thirties. He wore white shoes, white pants, a white shirt, and a white suit, and most likely white socks. Basically, if it was white or light colored he would wear it. Even though he was in his thirties his hair was stark white and so were his eyes. Although, they were more of an offish white sort of color. He's like that because he's an albino. His name is unsurprisingly, Whitey Jackson. Then there was the man with the scar on his face, who wore a bland shirt and pants, along with a tan trench-coat, and had brown hair whose name is Scarface. It probably isn't his real name, but who gives a damn? Not him that's for sure.

There's a joke in there somewhere. They're that kind of unique.

All this answers the question of how they spend their money. On really snazzy looking outfits. And candy, and weapons but mostly outfits.

Rupert was talking about something, while drinking tea, Scarface was sitting on a wooden chair in a corner listening to the radio, staring at the wall, watching the paint fall off, and Whitey was looking out the dusty, half opened window. He really needed to clean that window. It made his nose itchy.

Whitey usually listened to Rupert when he talked, but he was distracted by what went outside. Something very interesting was going on out there. Very, very, interesting.

"…and that's when," CRASH. And then a car alarm went off. Just when Stiltskin was about to finish his wonderful story something bad had to happen. It always had to happened before he got to the punchline.

"What was that?" Scarface ran to where Whitey was at and watched the scene that was taking place before them.

Some teenagers and young adults had metal bats in their hands, some had crow bars instead, and were beating at a car window. That car happens to belong to the assassins. It was a nice black car, which was considered to be a limousine. The hit-men would've loved to stop those car thieves, but unfortunately they were on the third floor and jumping out the window with those people outside would be suicidal. They could of just gotten out their gun and shoot those bastards, but that thought didn't cross their minds until much later. I'd give or take a few weeks.

The car thieves broke a window and unlocked the doors from the inside. Then they managed to drive away with it.

"There goes our transportation," Whitey said, getting over the fact that their only car had been stolen. They could just get another car once they get the money from the odd jobs that they do, and assassinations. If they don't get any money, he figured that they could steal a car. He walked towards where Stiltskin was sitting and sat down right beside him.

Stiltskin put his head in his hand and sighed deeply. "Somebody stole our car, didn't they?"

"Yes," Whitey said without really looking at him. He was looking some rat that was scurrying across the hard floor. It would stop for a few seconds, sniff the air, then start scurrying again. He followed the thing's movement until it disappeared into a hole in the wall. The rat infestation could explain why there was holes in the boxes that contained food, and droppings. Rat droppings near the boxes that contain food to be more exact. Although, sometimes the droppings ended up in the food supplies. Thinking about food often made him hungry. A bowl of Cheerios sounded good to him right now but then he remembered that the rats got to it. Maybe he could eat some Frosted Flakes. That tiger said that they're great. They were okay to Whitey. They could be better. Sadly, the rats got to that too.

Those little bastards even got to his toys. He couldn't wait until he got his hands on one. He'll kill it, then attached some of the rats body parts on one of his action figure. Perhaps he could put it on display, so all the vermin know not to mess with his things.

He then realized that everyone was staring at him. "Yes?"

'Freak,' Scarface turned his head back to stare at the wall some more.

Stiltskin closed his eyes and sigh once more. He doubt anyone was listening to his rant on not being able to get to the punchline. As much as he liked his proteges, they were a pain sometimes. At least Scarface had his own room, one that Stiltskin bought, and job that doesn't include killing other people. Whitey on the other hand, shared the apartment with Stiltskin. Scarface was currently visiting them. When Whitey wasn't on the job, killing or stalking, he was at the apartment, doing nothing but eating, sleeping, playing with his toys (which is code for mutilating toys), and lounging around. Stiltskin tried to get Whitey to get a job, but it did not work out too well. At least the guy is a highly skilled stalker, and killer. Now if only he could be good at other things.

He's like those people who still live with their parents and expect their parents to do everything for them. He can barely go to a store to buy food on his own. Stiltskin has to go with him.

"What are we going to do now?" Although Stiltskin said it out loud, it was not meant to be answer.

"We can go to the library," Scarface suggested. He was still trying his best not to get on anyone of his co-workers bad side. They are scary whenever that happens. Although, sometimes, he picked on Whitey just for the hell of it.

Besides, he wanted badly to go to the library, even though he wasn't planning on reading any books anytime soon. Also, Whitey got beaten up there. He also wanted to set some books on fire just because it's fun. Books have a lot of pages to be burned.

"You do know Gloria works at the library do you? Unless you want to get stabbed by some sewing needles, its best if we don't go there." Stiltskin replied. Scarface wondered how his boss can still remember that woman's name. His boss must have a great memory.

"She could be dead. Besides, I would've been fine if Whitey here hadn't thrown the knife at me and almost killed me!"

"Next time you will think twice before double crossing us," Stiltskin retorted.

There was no reply from Scarface, for he knew double crossing his co-workers was a bad idea from the start. He is lucky he even survived.

"To the library then," Stiltskin went to another room and got a gun. Scarface and Whitey did the same. Apparently their boss had changed his mind, but they were still going to follow him.

Stiltskin wanted to go, he had always wanted to go but wanted to wait for someone else to suggest it, because he wanted to get a few books. He also wanted to make sure Scarface doesn't burn any books. He knows how Scarface is.

As they ran through the streets, shooting who ever is unfortunate to be in their way, a young girl popped out of an alley way and just happened to bump into them.

"Sorry," she said, rubbing her nose. She looked up at the three assassins and saw that they were carrying guns. "Join you?"

"Huh?" Stiltskin wasn't quite sure he heard her right.

"Join you?" she asked again.

"I-."

"Thanks," the girl interrupted before Stiltskin could say anything. He was about to ask the girl where her parents were at. What kind of parents let their child roam around the streets while a riot is out? She looked like she can't be much older than ten or eleven. The three men looked at each other. Scarface shrugged and Stiltskin took the girl's hand. Then, they started running again.

It took them a while, but they finally made it. Stiltskin tried to open the door, but he found that it was locked. Stiltskin felt someone tug at his shoulder and let Whitey guide him to one of the back doors. Excellent.

"Scarface, unlock the door," Stiltskin ordered. It's fun to order people around.

Scarface obeyed his boss's order and pulled out a lock pick. He fiddled with the lock until he finally opened it.

The hit-men, and the girl, quickly burst into the room. The girl, upon seeing so many books, skipped to an aisle and picked a book off the shelf to read. She sat on the floor and started to read some book.

"Leave her there, Whitey," Stiltskin said. He doubt that anybody would hurt the girl, so she's fine where she's at.

The girl looked up and saw that the three men, who were funny looking to her, were gone. She dropped the book and jumped up. She ignored library etiquette and ran to go find those funny looking men.

She bumped into the white-haired man and he stumbled forward. The old man with the hat was looking at her, and so was the scar faced man. The white-haired man looked at her as well. She wondered if he was mad at her and she wanted to say sorry, but her voice wouldn't work, so she looked at a shelf. They continued walking and she followed them.

^#I'm#very#drunk#right#now#That#horse#is#looking#good#I'ma#go#do#something#regrettable#^

The library was like any other library. It was huge and it had books. End of story. Two people, a brown haired man and a blond haired woman, were discussing what to do now that they were at the library.

"Let's go eastward, to the Atlantic Ocean," Gloria pushed some hair out of her face. She always wanted to visit the east coast. She's been there before, but unfortunately couldn't revisit because of how busy she was. She blames all those wacky hijinks.

"You know, that's good idea," Tony smiled at Gloria.

"Thanks. Well, just let me put up this book and we should leave after that," the book that Gloria had to put up was a very, very, very thick book. Gloria went down the stairs, into the lower parts of the library. She walked along the aisle, searching for the spot where the book should be. She got out one aisle and was about to enter another one when she a saw a very white, and very familiar man. Gloria screamed and fell on her bottom. The man raised his eyebrows and stared at her.

Gloria felt as if heart would burst. Her eyes were wide and she was paralyzed with terror. The man stretched out his hand towards her. Gloria grabbed the thick book and threw it at the man. It hit the man in the face and sent him backwards. He tried to use some of the books on the shelf to keep him steady, but the books only fall on him. He then held his head in his hands, blood dripping from them.

Scarface chuckled a bit, but stopped once Stiltskin glared at him.

Tony heard Gloria screamed. He jumped up from the seat, causing it to fall onto the floor, and dashed to where she was. He quickly searched the book aisle in search of Gloria. When he found her, she ran into his arms.

"It's him! It's the albino, and the dwarf, and the man with scar, and the...um..." She stopped when she saw a child with short brown hair that reached just below her chin, who had her head on her shoulder with one hand over her ear. She picked up a book off the shelf with her free hand, while rocking back and forward.

She then glimpsed at the blonde haired woman who screamed. She didn't know who this woman was, but she looked nice with her long hair and such. The girl was perplexed as to why that woman was screaming. The white-haired man did not hurt her at all. So why on earth would she be screaming?

"Stiltskin, what are you doing here? Didn't you guys died?" Tony inquired.

"We faked our deaths," Stiltskin said bluntly. He knelt down besides Whitey to give him a handkerchief. Whitey took the handkerchief and pressed it against his bleeding nose.

Scarface was in the background, burning some books, but nobody was paying attention to that.

"You expect us to believe that. Especially with Whitey after I shot him and he fell off the catwalk. Also how do you explain Scarface's corpse?" Tony asked.

"I'll explained that later, right now let's sit down and rest" Stiltskin said. Sheesh, that man is annoying right now. Does he not understand that Stiltskin's tired?

"We ran here," Scarface added. He dropped the book before the fire reached his hand.

Stiltskin and Tony watched the book that was now on fire. Scarface grabbed another book and set it on fire. He then dropped it on the other burning book. He then grabbed another one until Stiltskin told him to stop burning books and to put out the fire. It took a while for Scarface to finally figure out and put out the fire.

"What makes you think we can trust you?" Tony asked after the book burning incident was done.

"We just want somewhere to rest."

"Alright, but I want you all in front of me and if you do anything suspicious, then I'll shoot you. Got it?" Tony let them pass before him.

"Yes," the assassins replied in unison. Except for Whitey. He just walked up the stairs, not bothering to answer a simple question. Why should he? He doesn't have to say anything. Action speaks louder than words. He turned his head to the right and saw that girl skipping up the stairs. The girl jerked forward, since she lost her footing, and started to fall backward. Luckily for her, Gloria and Whitey caught her. His hand reacted on their own. If the girl fell, then she would have learned not to skip up the stairs.

He's going to let her fall the next time. Ah, next time...Hopefully it would be concrete stairs. Then she'll really learn her lesson.

The group of colorful people resumed walking up the stairs.

"Can you please explain to me how you guys are still alive?" Everyone was sitting at a table staring at each other. Stiltskin answered Tony's question.

"After you knock those shelves on me, I played dead when Delia Darrow came in. Then after you left I got out from underneath the shelves. It took me a while to get out because when I went inside the archbishop's house Delia was no where to be found. It turns out that she was in a grand piano." He paused and then muttered under his breath, "Don't know how she got there. Once I got her out she told me everything that had happened. About the fight and how she told of our alternative plan. She passed out again. I tried to call the opera house and tell Whitey that the plans are canceled, but no one answered. I called the hospital and told them the location of where an injured person might be. I said that the person who was might be injured was wearing all white, has an ID badge on, has white hair, and is in his thirties. It pays to be descriptive. You never know when somebody similar is in the same place. I was interrupted when I felt something hit me in the back of the neck."

"Mr. Hennesey," Gloria muttered.

Stiltskin raised an eyebrow when she said that name. He would like to meet that person.

"As I was saying, someone knocked me out for a few minutes. I woke up and fled the scene to go help Whitey. Unfortunately, I was too late."

"That still doesn't explain how Whitey survived after being shot near the neck." Tony said.

"He was put in the hospital under critical conditions and had to stay there for a while." Stiltskin said. He purposely left out some key information. The information he gave them is only halfway true. Not like they would believe him if he told them the actual reasons. He didn't even tell his employers the real reasons. They would probably react poorly to the news on how they survived.

"How did they know that he was still alive?"

"I got a friend to help out and make sure he got to the hospital." The guy has friends everywhere. They're very handy for backup.

"What about Scarface's corpse we found in the ocean?"

"That was a man we killed who worked at the opera house," he stated bluntly, as if that other man's life didn't matter. The guy was in the way. They needed someone to work behind the scenes, so they killed that guy to take his job. Damaged his face as well. That is how Whitey was allowed to work there under the pseudonym Jacob Whitfield.

The manager would not shut up about the poor guy's family and how the guy was supposed to retire in a few days. It's always when they are about to retire is when they're killed. Always.

"Enough talk about this, what we really need is a ride."

He was trying to strike a deal with the couple. They give him a ride to a peaceful place, then he won't bother them anymore.

"Why can't you drive yourself?" Tony asked, skeptical of Mr. Stiltskin's motives.

"My car was stolen and as Scarface said we ran here. Also I'm too tired to drive and I think Scarface is too." Stiltskin was starting to get annoyed by all the question. Sure he had tried to kill not only them, especially Gloria, but he had been hired to kill the Pope. But that was strictly business. Right now he was exhausted, besides killing them would be too much work. First you have to kill them, hopefully a clean kill, and if you don't kill them that way then you have to pick up the mess. Well, you still have to get rid of evidence, but it wouldn't be as hard without blood and gore, then with all that stuff there. As it's been stated before he was just too damn tired. Hell he was so tired that he didn't feel like getting Whitey or Scarface to murder the couple.

"Why don't you get the albino to drive?"

"Whitey can't drive."

He seriously cannot drive to save his life. He once crashed a car through five or more trees. On the same day. Whitey jumped out of the car before it crashed into a building, and ran off once he saw the damage. He's not even sure how he manage to do that. He also always got the lights confused with each other, and drove on the wrong side of the street, when he wasn't driving on the sidewalk almost hitting some pedestrians, and most certainly hitting some mailboxes. He did not even have a license to drive. Stiltskin just gave the man a car and let him drive it. Stiltskin regretted ever doing that. At least the police did not notice who Stiltskin was. Whitey certainly cost Stiltskin some money, so now he isn't allowed to drive. That was the only time he was allowed to drive.

While Tony was questioning Stiltskin, Scarface, Whitey, and the girl were sitting at the table doing practically nothing. The girl was reading some book she picked off the shelf, so she's an exception, but the two hit-men were doing nothing. Scarface was dozing off. He then thought of Whitey almost killing him and was then thankful that the protection gear worked. Barely, but it worked. He made it himself. Whitey was listening intently to the conversation. When they got to the part about Delia Darrow, he became slightly agitated. He thought that he would have been able to assassinate the Pope if Delia hadn't told the plan to the enemy. Then he wouldn't have to suffer not only a physical wound, that almost cost him his life, but a blow to his pride as well. He considered himself to be a pretty damn good assassin.

He glanced at Scarface, who was now sleeping. A small puddle of drool was forming near Scarface's mouth, and he was snoring. Disgusting. He then glanced at Rachael, who was watching him and then she quickly looked at her book once she saw the albino looking at her. Strange. He could have sworn that he saw her mouth moving, like she was trying to say something. Probably insulting him. Bitch.

Tony and Gloria were discussing about what to do about the hit-men and the girl. They couldn't just leave the girl with the hit-men. Sure, they can take the girl, and leave the hit-men behind, but they had a feeling that would not work out well.

"Alright, you can come with us, but first, I want all of your weapons on the table," Tony demanded.

He didn't want them to kill him or Gloria when they found a chance to do so, and that's why he is taking their weapons. If they do try to kill him or Gloria, he would kill them first, with their own weapons.

Stiltskin reached into one of his pockets and brought out a revolver and put it one the table. He also put the shot gun on the table. Scarface did the same, only his weapon of choice was a pistol and some rope. Whitey got out some knives, some darts, a handgun, a bottle of some chloroform or some other thing to drug a person, and some other kinds of weapons.

Gloria watched the ordeal with an alarmed expression. She was amazed on how much weapons the albino had, so was Tony. Stiltskin and Scarface were used to it. Once Whitey was "done" putting his weapons on the table Stiltskin glared a him. He put his hand in one of his pocket and got out one more knife.

Gloria got out a purse and then puts the weapons in there. Almost all of them, save for one knife. Her purse's very huge. The shot gun didn't fit so Tony had to carry it.

They all started to leave, but not before getting the girl, who was seemingly oblivious to them.

Once they were outside, Tony went to his car and unlocked the doors. He opened the door for Gloria and let her in. Then he went to the driver side and got in. The rest of the group sat in the back. Whitey was on the left side of the car near the window and the girl was on the other side. Scarface and Stiltskin were in the middle.

"It's crowded in here," the girl muttered.

All eyes turn on her, except for Tony who was driving and didn't want to take his eyes off the road. The girl stared back at everyone, then turned her head to stare out the window. A long awkward silence followed. Whitey, Scarface, and Stiltskin went back to what they were doing. For Whitey, it was staring at the scenery passing by, and for Stiltskin and Scarface, it was staring straight ahead.

"What's your name?" Gloria didn't want to keep referring to the girl, as the girl. The girl must have a name.

"...Rachael," it took a while for her to answer.

"Where are your parents?" Gloria was curious as to why Rachael was traveling by herself. 'Maybe they died in the plague.'

"They went on vacation," Rachael said nonchalantly.

"Oh."

Stiltskin grunted when he heard Rachael's answer on where her parents were. Being dead is one thing, but leaving your child behind to go on vacation without her, presumably to get away from said girl, is another. Sure, children can be annoying but it doesn't give anyone the right to just leave. What kind of parents go on vacation without their child? He really hoped that they got a babysitter for Rachael.

The car ride was stopped suddenly due to a traffic jam. Tony got out of the car to examine how bad the traffic jam was. He went back to his car and told everyone to get out. Some of it was due to the traffic jam, but most of it was because he forgot to refill his car with gas, so now it was empty.

"Looks like we have to walk, unless any of you know another form of transportation?" Tony looked at everybody, hoping for an answer. He seriously did not want to walk for too long. It was too hot to be walking that long.

"Motorcycles," Whitey suggested. "We passed a store a few minutes ago."

The couple stared at him. Shocked. The same thought ran through their mind. 'He can talk?' Everyone else didn't care. Rachael smiled for some reason. Then her attention was shifted towards a yellow butterfly, which she tried to catch, but had no luck in doing so. Scarface watched the girl run around in circles, trying to catch the butterfly. It was highly amusing to watch the girl run around, bumping into the others.

She bumped into Stiltskin, who merely told her to watch where she was going. Either she didn't hear him, because of how focused she was on the butterfly or she didn't care because she bumped into Whitey. She looked up and saw him glaring at her and stopped where she was at. The butterfly flew right passed her and she spun around to go get it.

The group paused to look at Rachael chase a butterfly around. How old is she anyways?

"Everyone to the motorcycles!"

Everybody turned around a headed in the direction from which they came. Stiltskin had to take Rachael by the wrist, because she was still trying to catch that butterfly.

She tried fighting him, but since he was stronger than her, he won. Although, it did take a moment of her going in one direction and him going into another before they got somewhere.


	3. Onwards

**Another revised chapter.**

**The first couple of chapters will focus on Foul Play and Summer of the Swan plus a few other things, but the ones named are the most prominant.**

**The chapters afterward should be focusing on Anchorman, Silver Streak, and The Simpsons.**

While Tony and Gloria were in the library, along with the assassins and Rachael, somewhere in West Virginia, a young woman was holding another younger woman. Both of them were grieving the death of their aunt Willie, whose life had been taken away by the blasted plague. She just died today. They watched her fall sick, and watched as she took her last breath. The older woman was also crying because her boyfriend, Frank, had died from the plague as well. They were about to get married, but now that can never happen.

They had it all planned out. They were supposed to get married on the fifth of December. Their wedding would have had silk clothed tables, with streaks of red and purple. The chairs would also have the cream-colored silk cover on them with red ribbons. There would have been a ball, and a band for her wedding. Then, they would have had a feast. That feast would never happen. As well as the wedding.

A much younger boy sat on the floor, a few paces from the girls, and was hugging his knees. He was sleepy after crying his eyes out and throwing a fit.

The oldest one wiped away her tears and stood up.

"We need to get out of here," she said, her voice wavering. She tried to keep her composer in front her younger siblings.

"Where are we supposed-hic-go to Wanda?" the younger female asked.

"I don't know!" Wanda pulled on her hair. She then fell to the floor weeping uncontrollably.

The boy stirred and woke up from his nap. He looked at his two older sisters, who were crying. He couldn't remember why he passed out or why his sisters were crying, but their crying made him sad.

He hates it when people he loves are sad. It made him sad as well.

He got up from his position and started to walked towards Wanda. His feet that shuffled were audible, and Wanda turned her head to face him when she he heard it. Once the boy reached his destination, he lowered himself and attempted to give Wanda a bear hug. He remembered how when he felt bad, either Aunt Willie, Wanda, or Sara, his other sister, would hug him and that would make him feel better. His chin rested on Wanda's brown hair, which Sara considered to be gorgeous. The hair that is.

"Thanks Charlie," Wanda wiped away her tears. "We can go and try to find other survivors."

The siblings were the only ones left in the whole damn town, so they might as well go in search of other people somewhere else. Wanda told Sara to start packing her things, and to make sure those things were very important to her. Then Wanda started to pack her things, which happen to include hygienic stuff, clothes, and a picture of her and Frank. She stopped packing and gazed at the picture. She was smiling while Frank kissed on the cheeks. They were at the lake that day for a picnic. That was the day when Frank proposed to her. She said yes. She snapped out of her daydream and she started to pack things for Charlie, asking if he wanted something or not. As always Charlie replied with a nod or a head shake. Some of the things he wanted were a teddy bear, his old watch, which doesn't work any more and he already has new one, and Aunt Willie's box.

Once the siblings were done packing, they went outside. Wanda went to the shed to go get out the electric scooters that they had gotten, except for Charlie, who was unable to drive yet, and Aunt Willie didn't want him to get hurt, while her two younger siblings waited. Wanda called out to Charlie and Sara to come to where she was at. Sara held Charlie's hand while they ran behind the house, to the shed and saw Wanda with the scooters. She gave Charlie his helmet and helped him put it on. Sara put on her helmet by herself and got on her own scooter, which is yellow, while her sister is light blue. Charlie got on the blue scooter with his older sister Wanda. The sisters started their engines and headed out of town, with Charlie holding on to Wanda, afraid to let go.

The houses were seemingly normal looking. Just the run of the mill suburban houses, with a car in the parking-lot, a porch, a wonderful paint job, and well trim gardens.

Ms. Winter's was the best garden in Sara's opinion. The woman had all types of flowers in her garden: petunias, roses, daisies, and so on. She also made the best pumpkin pie that Sara had ever tasted.

The blinds on the windows were closed. All of them were closed, even for the people who normally kept them open.

There were no dogs barking at the siblings like they normally do. Instead, Charlie saw a dog that was tied to a tree. It was a very ugly, skinny dog, with it's ribcage sticking out. The dog's eye was clouded by the bugs that crawled on it, digging into the dog's eye. The dog just lied on it's side, it's breathing labored, too weak to dig out the bugs that were crawling into it's eyes.

It wished for food. It wished for it's master to come out of his house and feed it.

Charlie felt bad for the dog. He wanted to help it but knew that nothing would work.

The siblings decided to stop at a convenient store and get some food. Wanda picked up a rock that was bigger than her head, and threw it on the window. Sara jumped back a bit but joined her sister. She pulled Charlie into the store.

They got as much food as they can fit into their backpacks. Wanda got mostly nutritional stuff, while Charlie got mostly sweets. Sara got a little bit of both. At first Charlie was reluctant to get some food, because he didn't want to steal. Then Wanda reasoned that since nobody is there to stop them, since mostly everyone is dead or dying, and that they need the food, that it's okay to steal or take without ask for the moment.

He took as much food as he could. Mostly candy bars and such. Wanda and Sara had to remind him to get healthy food, like fruits and vegetables.

They mounted the scooters, drove off and said goodbye to their hometown. They said goodbye before they drove off.

The dog waited for its master.


	4. Store

**Another revised chapter. Yay...I should really be working on my other fics. Damn writers' block. I also need to learn how to describe the setting. Pretty soon there's going to be a chapter with nothing but the description of the setting. Or not.**

**Why am I still writing this?  
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"Whitey, how long ago was it when we passed the motorcycle shop?" Tony quicken his pace to catch up to Whitey.

Whitey glanced at Tony, then he held up his left arm to look at his watch. "Ten to twenty minutes ago." He let his hand fall to his side and kept walking. "How do you know my name?" He wondered why he was being addressed by his 'true' name by someone who just met him. That is if you don't count the whole ordeal of him grabbing Gloria, then dragging her across the catwalk that was above the stage, and shooting at some random security officers. Also, he tried to shoot Tony, then he dragged Gloria again across the catwalk, trying to find a place where he can lock her up, so that she would not interfere. Too bad it didn't worked because some person had to sneak up on him, causing him to shoot that person, next Gloria tried to take away his rifle. He shoved her to the floor and then he was about to aim and shoot, when he got shot. Good thing those ropes were there to catch him or he would have really been dead for sure. That confrontation doesn't really count as meeting in person. Anyway, most people just call him the "Albino"or some other name that referred to his albinism. The most creative one so far in his opinion was the Blank Man. The Specter was good as well.

Those names reminded him of some old comic books that man would always read. What was his name again? Whitey thought the man was named after a country or some other place. All he knew was that the man's name made him hungry.

"Other than the fact that that's what Stiltskin calls you, there's a file on you three at the police station." Tony replied.

"I only gave Scott the film, nothing else," Scarface said before the other two could accuse him.

Stiltskin wondered if Scott had known about him longer then he let on. If the police already had a file on them, then how come they weren't caught? Is it that hard to catch a criminal who frequently visit the same place? Is that how Scott knew about him the first place? He's going to have to talk to Scarface about that. The two were very close so to say. Stiltskin never saw that level of closeness between his two proteges. Most of the time, they tried to stay out of each others way. Although, Scarface was known to play pranks on Whitey, which only made Whitey retreat further into his shell. The guy apparently has a hard time taking a joke.

"Whitey, next time tell us the time," Stiltskin said.

"Yes boss."

Stiltskin really wished the guy would speak up more often. He also wished the guy wasn't so dependent upon him. Stiltskin ain't gonna live forever. Although, he thought it would be cool if he did.

"I'm hungw-um-hungry," Rachael grabbed Gloria's arm. "Miss what's your name, I'm hungry."

"Eh, oh. Mundy, Gloria Mundy."

"Who's that?" Rachael pointed at Tony, while still holding on to Gloria.

"I'm Tony Carlson," Tony said.

Rachael released her grip on Gloria and ran up to Stiltskin. "Who're you mister?"

"Rupert Stiltskin," Stiltskin was a little taken aback with the girl asking for his name currently even though she had the chance to do that when she first met them.

"You?" Rachael latched onto Scarface.

"Scarface." She let go of him and went to Whitey.

"Your name too," she demanded. She grabbed his wrist to try to stop him from walking. He just stared at her from the corner of his eyes. He kept walking and ended up dragging her because she wouldn't let go of his wrist. Stiltskin had to tell Whitey to stop. Whitey obeyed his command and abruptly came to a halt. Rachael bumped into him. "Mph! Sorry."

He turned around to face the girl and said coldly. "Whitey Jackson."

Rachael ran to where Gloria is to tell Gloria that she's hungry. There happen to be a store nearby them that seemed empty. Gloria told Tony about the store and he decided to investigate it. The rest of the group followed him. When he got there he found out the door was locked. He grabbed hold of the shotgun that was slung across his back and shot the window. When Rachael heard the gun being fired she jumped away and fell down on her knees. She covered her ears to block out the loud noise.

The window shattered when the bullet hit it. Tony started to hit the rest of the glass that was left on the window pane with the butt of the shotgun. Once he was done, he jumped into the store and helped Gloria in. The three hit-men decided to wait outside and watch Rachael, who was still on the ground covering her ears.

Inside the store it was dim. Tony and Gloria walked around the store looking for food. Mostly canned or packaged food that didn't have close expiration date. They also got some milk, but that was for drinking at the moment and some bottled water. They figured Rachael would be safe with the assassins since they don't have their weapons with them.

Gloria was about to go the counter to get some jerky and maybe some candy for Rachael, when she felt something scurrying across her feet.

"Eek!" Gloria glanced at her feet to see a rat. She kicked at it and it ran away. She proceeded to go to the counter, when she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a man at the counter. His body was in a slumped position and he rested his head on his arms. He was very still, almost lifeless. In fact he was lifeless. There were flies on and around the man. He was an old man who was completely bald. Upon farther inspections, the man was in a stage of decaying. Gloria crept closer to dead man and saw that what should have been his eyes were maggots crawling in and out of his eye sockets. She got on her tip toes to look behind the counter. She saw some rats around the man, eating and fighting each other for food. There was also some blood stains on the floor. All of a sudden she felt like getting candy somewhere else.

Tony came up to Gloria and saw what she saw. He couldn't tell how long that the man was there and he didn't care to find out. He hadn't seen anything like that, except for "Scarface's" or what he thought was Scarface's corpse, who had most of his face torn off. It turned out it was some person that the assassins, presumably Whitey, had killed and then damaged his face. They also put a scar that was identical to Scarface's, to make it looked like he had died.

"Come on let's get out of here," Gloria agreed, but at first she needed to get some candy. She got some random candy from a random shelf and put it in a backpack that she had gotten earlier off another shelf. Tony got some more backpacks and put the food in the backpacks. Gloria spotted some suncream and dashed to the shelf to gets some. Good thing she did because it was summer and they are bound to be traveling out in the heat and sunlight. It was an especially good thing for Whitey, because he gets sunburned easily. She'll probably conveniently forget to give them to him. The couple left the store they way they came in, through the window.

Outside the hit-men and Rachael were leaning on the wall of the store. Rachael got out of her sitting position, when Whitey grasped her shoulders, forced her onto her feet, and pulled her towards the wall.

She's a weird girl. How old is she anyways? She kept staring at him with that grin that looked like it was going to split her face. Haven't her parents taught her good manners.

She either stares at the albino or Scarface's scar. Kids normally ask how he got it and he either scares them away or makes up some story. It really depends on who kids they were. If the kids were relatives of Stiltskin, then he was nice to them. Stiltskin has a big family.

"Here you go," Tony handed the rest of the group some bottles milk. One bottle for each of them. "Don't worry, it isn't poisoned. I checked the expiration date," he assured when he saw the grouped just stare at the milk bottle in their hands. Stiltskin opened the bottle and drank from it. Scarface and Whitey followed. Rachael didn't start to drink hers until everybody else was done drinking theirs.

Gloria handed the girl some candy and some food. She also gave the hit-men some food to eat. It was sort of awkward for her to do that since what happened between them about one or two years ago. They accepted the food, because they, like everyone else in the group, were freaking hungry. After everybody was done eating, they started walking in the direction of the motorcycle shop.

A few minutes walking in one direction, Whitey spoke up and told them that the shop is in a different direction.

"You know you could have told us earlier," Tony said.

"I forgot," was all the albino said when he saw the majority of the group glaring at him.

The group the proceeded to walk in the correct direction.


	5. ChitChat

**Why am I so alone?**

**Said the man to the statue.**

**Another chapter up I suppose.  
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**Oh yeah, time jumps around a lot in this fic. Well, let's just say it is in a sort of anachronistic order. I think there also might be some mood whiplash.**

**I need to research cities, and how long it would take to travel between them. I also need to look up military bases, and weapons. Like I need to research how a flame thrower would work, or which guns are more accurate than others. I'm pretty sure there was some other things I needed to research. Government of the seventies, deaths, cults, disasters, etc. Well, I'm going to have so much fun.  
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The walked to the motorcycle shop seemed to be a rather long walk. When the group got to the motorcycle shop it was already evening. They were very thankful that nothing had happen to them. Meaning that they didn't run into anybody that was crazy, and a crazed killer at that. Unless they counted the hit-men as crazed killers, but other than that they were perfectly fine. Also, they didn't run into any robbers, rapist, or what ever the hell else they can run into that can and will harm them. They would've gotten there faster if Tony hadn't left his car at the traffic jam. There's no use in going back there to get it anyway since that would take much more time than needed. Tony blamed Whitey for not telling him earlier about how many minutes it's been since they first passed the motorcycle shop. Then again what should he expect from the albino hit-man that he had shot a year or so back. It could be Whitey's way of getting back at Tony, for ruining the plan, without the use of weapons.

Tony started a conversation with the hit-men to get to know them better, but it was mostly out of boredom. They were going to be traveling together for a long while so he might as well get to know them. All he knew about them was that they killed for a living.

"Which one of you is the oldest?" Tony asked the hit-men.

"I am," Stiltskin answered. It was obvious that he was the oldest. The wrinkles sort of give it away. He got out a cigar and a lighter. He then lit the cigar and started to smoke it. Cancer be damn. Also, smoking does make one look cool.

Tony was asking about the proteges.

"Who's the youngest?"

"Whitey is. I believe he's younger than you are, but older than Gloria." How he knew that, Tony didn't know. He didn't want to know. Of course the guy was a stalker. Yet, where on earth would he get information like that?

Everybody leaned against the brick wall of the motorcycle shop. They were all tired from the long day. Rachael was sound asleep. She leaned on Gloria, both of whom were sitting down. At first Rachael was sleeping on Whitey's leg, but then he got fed up with it. So, he did the only thing he could think of and kicked the girl towards Gloria. Gloria accepted that and allowed Rachael to rest her head on Gloria.

The group wanted to rest before they got the motorcycles. They also had to decide who would drive the motorcycles and who would ride with whom.

"So Whitey, I heard you can't drive. Does it mean you can't drive a motorcycle?" Tony got no reply from Whitey. All the albino did was glanced at him and that was it.

'Not much of a talker is he,' Tony thought. 'If we caught him, he probably wouldn't say a thing. He would just sit on the chair and look at you while you interrogated him.'

Gloria was thinking of her best friend Stella and then she started to remember something about a man whose name also started with an St. "Stanley!" She said that so suddenly Rachael jolted right up. Everybody was now staring at Gloria. "I'm sorry. It's just that I remember a man named Stanley."

"Stanley who?" almost everyone asked. The people who didn't asked were Whitey and Rachael, who went back to sleep.

"He's the conductor for the symphony. I met him when I was being chased by Whitey. He took me to his place and offered me something to drink. He gave me some binoculars so I can look out the window. I was using the binoculars so I can get a better look at Whitey. When I turned around Stanley was in nothing but his underwear. I believe you two met him before." She pointed at Stiltskin and Whitey. "You threw him into a pool of water. It was a massage parlor. Remember?"

_ Gloria ran into the main room and took the telephone from Stanley's hands. Earlier she had told him to call the police because there were killers out there. He was reluctant at first; he did not want anyone to know that he was at a brothel, but she shoved him out of the room. She was about to tell the police where she was located at when Whitey grabbed her. Stiltskin casually walked up and took Gloria away from Whitey. While Gloria was struggling to get out of Stiltskin's grasp, Whitey took hold of Stanley, who only had a towel on, and pushed him into a pool of water._

_Stanley got in their way, so he deserved it. Whitey was about to eliminate Stanley, but remembered that there were witnesses. Witnesses who didn't care if he kidnapped someone in broad daylight. They didn't know. He can kill them later.  
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_ The woman, who Stiltskin was conversing with, went up to the commotion to see what was going on._

_ "Is anything the matter?" the heavy-set woman asked. "Why are you holding that young lady?"_

_ "This is my niece," Stiltskin made up a lie on the spot. "My brother asked me to take care of her. You see, she's sick and she would always_ _wander off. It used to give her mother heart attacks when she wandered off and we couldn't find her."_

_ "Oh, sorry to hear that. Do you know why that man threw the other man into the fountain?"_

_"Jacob is very protective of my niece. He thinks of her as a younger sister. He saw the man fondling her against her will and wanted to help her."_

_ When Whitey realized Stiltskin was talking about him, he nodded his head furiously. He didn't want to say anything that will make the lady suspicious, so he kept his mouth shut._

_ "Why doesn't he speak?" The lady of the parlor asked._

_ "He's extremely shy. It's worst when he's around strangers," Stiltskin replied. _

_The lady nodded her head, feeling slight pity. Not only for 'Jacob's' intense 'shyness' that prevented him from talking or socializing, but for the blonde woman who was constantly 'wandering off' and being taken advantage of. To bad she was only partially right. She was right about Gloria being taken advantage of, meaning being taken against her will. Too bad she had the wrong person in mind._

_ Gloria desperately wanted to tell the lady that Stiltskin was lying, but Stiltskin had a hand over her mouth. *Although she wasn't sure about the last part being a lie. When she first met the white-haired man, he didn't verbally respond to her. In fact, Gloria never heard the man talk.* She screamed and screamed, but the hand muffled those screams. Gloria looked towards the lady for help, but the lady didn't help. The lady just stared at Gloria sympathetically. Stiltskin and Whitey lead Gloria to the car and forced her inside. Ferguson, another person they had kidnapped, was also there. The Turk, Delia and the Archbishop's twin brother, Charlie, were in the car as well. Charlie stepped on the gas pedal and drove away, taking Gloria and Ferguson to be held captive._

_ Inside the massage place, Stanley had to face a very angry no, pissed off woman. The lady went to the pool giving him the evil eyes, more like you're dead meat eyes._

_ "Um, h-hi," Stanley meekly said._

Stiltskin nodded his head and smiled when he remembered that day. Whitey gazed at nothing in particular and had a small smile on his face. It very very small. It was almost unnoticible. There was a possibility that he wasn't really smiling at all. It was hard to tell. Gloria was glaring at the two of them. The rest of the gang had no idea why the hell Stiltskin was smiling or why Gloria was glaring at the two hit-men. They wondered if it had something to do with them meeting Stanley.

"How did you three get in the library?" Gloria pondered aloud.

"We came through the back door," Scarface said like it was the most obvious thing on planet Earth.

"I locked all the doors when I got there, yet I didn't see you anywhere. Unless you three were hiding."

"Scarface lock picked the door," Stiltskin answered for Scarface. "Lock picking is an excellent skill to learn. Especially if you're an assassin like us. How else would we slip into a client's house unnoticed?"

The couple decided not to answer him.

'I noticed you,' Gloria thought.

Noticing that it was getting dark outside Tony decided to interrupt the conversation. "Stiltskin, do you know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"I'm not too old to learn new things," Stiltskin never rode on a motorcycle before in his entire life but he was willing to try. They looked like fun. He remembered riding on the back of on while his nephew drove to some pizza place. That was some great pizza.

"What about Whitey?" Tony knew he asked the albino that question before, but the powder hair hit-man refused to answer him.

"I can teach him!" Scarface volunteered. He's going to have so much fun "teaching" Whitey. He's mostly going to trick Whitey into crashing into a tree or something. Maybe convince him that he could fly. Told him that Stiltskin said it was true. Dumb-ass would also believed that. What an idiot.

Whitey looked at Scarface with a mix between apprehension and distrust expressed not quite so clearly on his face.

Scarface recognized the expression and quickly added, "When's the last time I betrayed your trust?" He's known that guy for quite some time. Of course he's going to recognize the expressions of the somewhat emotionless man.

Judging from the look that Whitey gave him, it probably wasn't a great idea to mention betraying trust.

"Excluding the time when I gave Scott the film."

Whitey didn't give up on staring icily at Scarface.

"And all the other incidents where I tricked you."

"Whitey was tricked by you?" Tony was curious on how to trick Whitey, and so was Gloria.

"When we were younger, and he just started being a hit-man."

"Tell us!"

Whitey glanced at Stiltskin. Stiltskin looked back and shrugged his shoulders. It was like he was trying to tell Whitey that it wasn't his problem, so don't bring him into it.

"One time I tricked him into going into the ladies' restroom at a bar. They weren't to happy with him being there and so were their men. He was outnumbered and before he went in there, he gave me his weapons. He came out with two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a few cuts and bruises. He could barely walk too. It turns out that he was banned from that place," Scarface stated as a matter of fact.

As Scarface was telling Gloria and Tony what happened, Whitey's face grew red, either from anger or embarrassment, and he hoped that nobody saw him blushing. Even though his back was touching the brick wall, he pushed himself further against it. He wanted to beat the shit out of Scarface really bad. How the hell were people supposed to fear him when that-THAT MAN kept blabbering about the embarrassing things that happened in the past?

Gloria and Tony listen intently to the story that was being told to them. Once Scarface was done with the story, Gloria, who had straight face on, had a hard time containing herself and burst out into fits of giggles. Tony also couldn't resist the temptation to laugh. Rachael, who was now awake, saw Gloria and Tony laughing and started to laugh with them. She honestly didn't have a clue as to why they were laughing, but she still went along with them. Stiltskin was grinning, not because of what happened to Whitey a couple of years ago, though that was freakin' hilarious, but of what was going to happen.

Tony caught a sight of the flustered albino and shook his head, laughing.

"You're dangerous?" he said.

"I can't believe I'm actually afraid of you," she said. He still creeps her out though.

The girl said nothing. She was too busy rolling on the floor, laughing. Literally.

Everyone stopped laughing and examined the girl. She just kept on laughing.

Then they started laughing. At him. Again.

Three...two...one...SMACK. Scarface felt a burning sensation on his face. He touched his cheek and looked at Whitey. Tony and Gloria stopped laughing after they heard Scarface getting slapped. The only sound that could be heard was that of Rachael's laughter. She was the only one laughing in that situation. Whitey glared at the child. She was completely oblivious to him standing in front of her. Gloria watched the scene, afraid of what might happen to Rachael. Why couldn't she just stop laughing? Stiltskin observed what was happening and wondered what his protégé would do to the girl. Tony was ready to run in between Rachael and Whitey if anything bad were to happened. It seemed like they were like this for hours. The suspense was killing them.

Finally the girl stopped laughing. She opened her eyes and looked up.

"Hi Whitey!" She smiled at him.

The albino unclenched his fist and went back to his original spot and stood there. Gloria let out a sigh of relief and Tony relaxed himself. Scarface was wondering why the hell Whitey slapped him but not the girl.

The reason he didn't was that he knew the others would gang up on him if he did. He's not that stupid. Also, Scarface deserved it. Why is he still alive anyways? The guy betrayed them, and he's such a jerk.

"He's a good hitman?" Tony asked the Dwarf.

"Yes. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to fight." Stiltskin said. Luckily, he has Scarface as the fighter. "He is very skilled at sneak attacks and since you laughed at him, he just might try to kill you in your sleep."

"I have the weapons."

"Point taken."

So the men went to the store and got the motorcycles. It took them a while but they got them out. Then, they dragged them to the gas station, which was conviently nearby, and tried to fill up the tanks. It also took a while. Mostly because they had to figure out a way to get some fuel out. They, eventually, managed to siphon the gas into the tanks.

Hooray for them. Now they have to drag those heavy things around until they find a suitable resting spot.

Dead people here and there littered the street. Some of them were children.

Most of them had bullet wounds. There were some with part of their heads missing. It was almost if they were executed. Blood stained the street. There were some bodies crushed underneath some vehicle. The ground was a little wet.

There may or may not have been people who were barely alive. It was hard to tell the dead from the living.

Rachael could not see. Someone was blocking her vision and guiding her along.

That is just one of the numerous images etched into the minds of the characters. Some were more affected than others. The woman was horrified. The man was disgusted. The scar-faced man didn't really care, he has seen things quite similar to this. He was also glad that he wasn't the ones to be killed. The albino was vaguely perplexed by his own feelings. He felt, he didn't know what he felt, but he felt the urge to bash one of the bodies head in. Especially the younger ones. A part of him was smiling inside. The dwarf was disappointed with the world. How anyone could do this to others, especially children, is horrible. Rachael, thankfully, didn't see much of it but she did catch a glimpse of the scene. She wished she had played more with the kids.

The strange group tread lightly. They, some of them, wished not to disturb the dead.

After wandering for a bit, Tony mused aloud on where they should sleep.

"Maybe a hotel or an empty store," Gloria added.

"I would bring you to my boathouse, but it's clear across town."

"Do you still that dog?" Stiltskin asked. "He was very loud, especially whenever he saw Whitey."

"When have you two gone to my boathouse?"

"Not too long ago," Stiltskin said.

"Why?"

"Curiosity. We wanted to see how one of our previous target lives his life. It gives such great insight." he paused, "I hope you didn't mind us eating some of your food. We took some of that cake with us. It was very delicious."

"You're the reason why most of the cake was gone?" That was just rude of them.

"It was a very good cake."

"Sleepy," Rachael said. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. She felt as if her legs would collapse, causing the inevitable. Her fall to the ground. She held onto Gloria before that could happen. Gloria looked about and saw that there was no one to carry Rachael. All of the men were occupied with the motorcycle.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Gloria had no idea where they were going or how long it will take to get to that place. But she wanted to keep Rachael from passing out.

The group wandered around, searching for a place to rest. It was dark outside, but not pitch black, thankfully. They wanted to find some place to rest quickly before anything bad happened.

"Passed a motel," Whitey said. How are they not noticing these things? There's a sign right there. The sign has been partially destroyed.

"How long ago was that?" Tony and Gloria asked.

"...About twenty minutes..." he said bluntly.

Then, they hit the jackpot. They found a motel. Rachael was one of the first ones to go into a room. When she was inside, she went towards a bed and roughly pulled the blankets up. Then, she jumped on the bed. She covered herself with the blankets and quickly fell asleep. Stiltskin did the same, only without all the jumping. Whitey beat Scarface to the lone couch and so Scarface was forced to sleep on the floor.

Gloria and Tony, seeing that there was no place for them to sleep at in that room, decided to go to another room. They picked one not to far down from the hit-men and Rachael. Tony pulled the motorcycles one by one into that room. Afterward he and Gloria got in bed together and then went to sleep.

Everyone slept peacefully for the next few hours.

As peacefully as enemies could while sleeping right next to each other. Which, by the way was not that peaceful. Whitey stood up most the night either staring at the door or the girl. He didn't trust her. He knows she's up to no good. He just knows it. That cute little act was just that. An act, a facade. Underneath it all she was probably some manipulative bitch, just like the rest of them. And, she's annoying.

Scarface couldn't sleep because he was on the floor and it hurt his back. Goddam floors.

The couple couldn't sleep because there were killers literally right next door. And Rachael was with them. Why did she have to go with them? Does she not know that they're killers? Tony's pretty sure they mentioned the word kill numerous times. Unless the girl is that oblivious, she should know better than to sleep in the same place as those people.

Well, they stood up the night just in case the girl was harmed.

The only people who actually slept were Stiltskin and Rachael.

It sucked for everyone else.


	6. Find

**I honestly hate myself. That's the only reason I can think of whenever I ask why I write this. It's like a drug, only without any of that intervention. I wonder how that would be like.**

**I need to write a drug chapter. One with the characters tripping on acid. I'll probably do it on the Simpsons Arc.**

**Ah, my plans for this fic sure has changed. If people still remember this before I took it off, the characters from the Stand were supposed to make their appearance by chapter 12. Obviously things didn't go as planned. They won't make much of an appearance until about chapter 50 or so.  
><strong>

An old man strolled into Gloria's apartment room. He just came back from vacation. He wanted to tell her about his week and see how she was doing. Her television was off. He didn't know why he took notice of that.

"Gloria?" he called out, but to no avail. He decided to try again. "Gloria, honey?"

The landlord searched the tenant's apartment. Then he found a note that he had overlooked. He went to the table to take a look at the note. It was addressed to him.

Dear Mr. Hennessey,

I am going to the library. Tony is taking me there, so you won't have to worry about me.

Love Gloria Mundy.

"Why would she choose to go to the library at a time like this?"

Mr. Hennessey decided that he was going to go to the library to see if she was unhurt. He walked down the stairs as fast as he could. Once outside, he started jogging in the direction of the library. He didn't have a car, for some reason. And besides, it's good exercise.

While jogging, he started reminiscing over what took place moments ago. He had gone to his cousin's house for a visit. He wanted to comfort her after her husband died of the flu. Ever since they were young, he and Emily had been inseparable. Almost every night he would read a bedtime story to her. He would impress her with his knowledge. And since she was much younger than him, about ten years, it seemed to her like an infinite amount of knowledge. Hell, one of the reason he learned how to fight better was to protect her and other loved ones.

While he was visiting Emily, she had somehow contacted the flu, Captain Trips. She didn't last too long. Only a week. That was it. She only lasted a week. Mr. Hennessey grieved her death, but now it was time to focus on finding Gloria and Tony. It's too bad he couldn't bury Emily. That town was pack full of dead people, and not just that town, other cities were that way too. It was a good thing he got on the bus before they, whoever they were, got smart and decided to put the town on quarantine mode. Which really was of no use, since almost all of the people in the United States were either dead or dying from the super flu, or they were going to have the flu hit them hard.

There may have been some cities that weren't hit at all. That's a stupid hope. People were bound to travel, and they were bound to spread the disease. Just, how did it get as bad as this?

Mr. Hennessey stopped jogging. He shook his head at the store before him. Its windows were smashed and almost everything in it was gone. There also was a puddle of blood on the floor. Mr. Hennessey turned around and came face to face with a man with a gun. A gun that was pointed at Mr. Hennessey.

"Gimme all yer money!" the man tried to look threatening, but his hands were shaking too much.

Mr. Hennessey kicked the thug in the stomach. The thug put one hand on his stomach to try and ease the pain. Mr. Hennessey saw his chance. He grabbed the thug's hand that held the gun, lifted the thug up, then threw the thug on the ground. The thug pointed an empty hand at Mr. Hennessey. It took a while for the thug to register that he didn't have his pistol. The thug looked up to see his own pistol pointed at him.

"P-p-please, I mean I was just jokin' with yah. DON'T HURT ME!" The thug scampered as fast as he could from Mr. Hennessey.

"What a strange man," Mr. Hennessey muttered to himself.

Old Mr. Hennessey continued on his adventure to the library. He decided to keep the gun.

He kind of missed Esme. He had to let someone else take care of the snake for a while. He has not seen the snake in months.

He is sure that Esme was being taken care of.

What will he do if he finds them? Travel with them. He used to travel a lot and he missed doing that as well.

When he got to the library he immediately went towards the back door. For some odd reason the back door was unlocked. He went inside to look for Gloria.

"Gloria," Mr. Hennessey called out. "Tony."

He looked everywhere and still couldn't find Gloria or Tony. Just then he spotted a little bit of blood on the floor. It wasn't that much blood, but it cause the landlord to worry a bit. It was then, on a table, he saw that there was one knife. Mr. Hennessey picked up the knife and examined it. The handle of the knife was white, the blade was long enough to go through someone and do damage. That was when Mr. Hennessey got worried. What if someone had kidnapped the couple or worse? All these thoughts were running through his head. He started trying to remember the person who used this knife. It looked familiar. Who was that person again? It can't be him he's dead. Is he? Mr. Hennessey put the knife in his pocket. He needed to find Gloria and Tony quick. And so began his quest to find the couple.

############################

This was a bad day. No, it was an extremely bad day. It was the absolute worse day in Stanley Tibbit's life. People were dropping dead practically everywhere. Most of the people in the symphony he conducted were dead, so now he didn't have a job. What's worse out of all that, when he finally thought he was going to score with some woman, she had to die before they actually got to do it.

Stanley turned the faucet to the off position and dried his face with a towel. He was leaving this place of his. He planned on going east, since west has nothing but water. Although, he was going to miss San Francisco, he quickly packed his belongings into a bag. He wasn't able to fit his sex dolls in that bag, but he was able to fit his binoculars in the bag. Just in case. He slung the bag on his shoulders and left his room. He would miss that special room, with its pop-out, make love on bed, hidden speakers, closet full of sex dolls, and a mini-bar. Also the disco ball. He's going to miss it. He remembered when he almost scored with a women but then she laughed at him and told him disco was dead. He can't remember if she walked out on him or if he kicked her out.

Stanley used the stairs, for the elevator wasn't working. It has not been working for months. They said they would fix it, but they never did. He got into his car, and drove off. He couldn't wait to get out of the "city of dead." While he was driving, he was so distracted by his thoughts that he ended up...right where he started. It could have been worse though. He could have ended up in some unfamiliar part of San Francisco and meet some very strange people. Stanley decided that the best thing for him to do was to limit his turns, and pay attention to the road.

He ended up stopping for a lady. That lady was exiting an apartment when Stanley got out of his car. She looked at him quizzically, unsure of his motives. She reached into her purse an brought out a bottle of mace.

"What do you think you're doing, buster?" the woman asked. She pointed the spray at Stanley, ready to let him have it if he tried anything.

Stanley struggled to find the right words. Having someone point mace at him wasn't helping his nervousness. At long last he managed to blurt out, "Would you like to go with me?"

The woman reluctantly agreed to go with him, but she still had the bottle of mace in her hand. That man looked vaguely familiar to her. She figured that if he tried to get a "nookie" from her, then she will defend herself. As one of her saying goes, "Nobody's gonna mess with Stella unless Stella wants to be messed," and she meant it.

She got inside Stanley's car and started going over some rule.

"First off, keep your hands to yourself. Second don't try anything with me." She added the following statement, "Or else."

Stanley gulped and nodded his head. He observed her outfit, which was a pair of blue jeans and a purple turtle neck sweater. His outfit was just a white button down shirt and a black slacks.

"My name's Stanley Tibbits," he kept his hands on the wheel and kept on driving. "Miss..."

"The name's Stella Stevenson," she answered. She was still trying to figure out where her friend Gloria could have gone. Stella was hoping that Mr. Hennessey would be there so she can ask him about Gloria's whereabouts, but he wasn't. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that they passed the person that would've help her find Gloria. Mr. Hennessey.

* * *

><p>Mr. Hennessey went to the local motorcycle shop and got himself his own motorcycle. It would make traveling easier for him. He quickly filled the motorcycle up with gas and was on his way to find Gloria and Tony. If only he had went to the motorcycle shop the day before, then he might have met up with the couple, but now it's too late.<p>

* * *

><p>Stanley manged to meet the exact same traffic jam that Tony met. Instead of getting out of the car, he simply went another way. He was out of San Francisco in no time. Maybe his day will lighten up. He glanced towards his left. Or maybe it'll get worse. He caught a glimpse inside Stella's purse. Inside there were enough weapons to almost match Whitey's personal arsenal. She had a stun gun, mace- lots of it, brass knuckles, along with some other things. He gulped as he looked towards the road in front of him. This certainly was a bad day for Stanley Tibbits.<p>

* * *

><p>The thug walked. He did nothing but walk and think. He couldn't do it. He couldn't shoot the old man. He's not a killer. He just a thug. A pathetic one at that. Ha!<p>

What a worthless man. Most other thugs wouldn't think twice about killing the old geezer, but he could not do it. He failed.

* * *

><p>As Mr. Hennessey was getting the motorcycle ready, a car parked right by him. He noticed the two people inside the car. One whom he recognized, and the other he did not. He was sure he has seen that man before. Perhaps on the streets or in some building.<p>

He is so sure that he has seen that person before. He knows Stella.

"Hello Stella," he greeted. "have you seen Gloria?"

"She's not with you?"

"I'm afraid not," he told her.

"Such a shame," Stella said. "Anyways, we were wondering if you would like to join us?"

"We were?" Stanley said meekly.

"Why certainly," Mr. Hennessey replied, ignoring the little comment from the conductor. He opened one of the back door and hopped in. "Why are you traveling?"

"Some bozos set my apartment on fire," Stella said.

"Everyone that I work with are dead," said Stanley. "I'm Stanley, by the way."

"You're that conductor," Mr. Hennessey said.

"Yes."

"I am sorry to hear that Stella."

"I got some of them," Stella replied to Mr. Hennessey's sympathetic remark.

Stanley was left to ponder about what exactly did she do to the people that she caught. He decided that it was better not to think about it.

Stella started the engine of the car and drove.


	7. Lessons

**Drugs drugs drugs.**

**I regret everything. Er, nothing. I regret nothing.**

**I also don't own the Auditors of Reality. Terry Pratchett does. What a rad guy.  
><strong>

The three hit-men were sound asleep in the motel room. Whitey awoke from his sleep. He looked around himself. Honestly, he had no idea where he was. He was kind of groggy and no matter how hard he tried to think up an answer, he couldn't. Whitey wasn't the only one to wonder where he was. Stiltskin got up from his bed and staggered towards Whitey. Whitey got up from the couch and met with Stiltskin. His neck ached-sleeping on a couch that he can barely fit in will do that, but it was better than sleeping on the floor. Scarface was the unfortunate one that had to sleep on the floor, despite the fact that there were two beds in the room. The three hit-men notice that there was an unknown person sleeping in one of those beds.

That person was curled up on the bed, sleeping peacefully. Whitey grabbed for one of his knife. It was then that he realized that all of his weapons were gone. What the hell was going on? The girl in the bed stirred about. After a long while she woke up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Stiltskin waited for her to become fully awake to start asking questions.

"Morning," the child said cheerfully. Was she always so cheerful? Must be the knew kind of drugs youngsters are taking.

"Who are you?" Stiltskin didn't want to waste anymore time. He decided to be as blunt as possible.

"Rachael, Stiltskin," she answered his question. Whitey held on to the girl's shoulder, in case if she try to run. If she did managed to get out of the albino's clutches, Scarface would deal with her. "Hi Whitey."

Again with the smile. Rachael turn her head up, so she can get a better look at the albino.

"Your eyes white, so's your hair," she remarked.

Stiltskin's eyes met with Whitey's. Did the girl just now notice that Whitey's hair and eyes were white or did she just decided to comment on it right now?

'Knock, knock,' The three hit men stared at each other, wondering just who was it that was knocking on the door. The knocking got harder and harder, until the unknown person was practically banging on the door.

"Open the door. This is the police," the voice commanded.

The hit men started to get a little wary. They thought that they've been found out and would now be arrested. Rachael somehow managed to get out of Whitey's grip and walked towards the door. Before Scarface can reach her, she opened the door.

"Hi Tony. Hi Gloria," she greeted.

Tony had the biggest grin on his face and Gloria had her hand on her mouth. She was trying to keep from giggling, but the perplexed expression on the hit men's faces made it hard to do. The couple quickly composed themselves. Gloria was relieved that Rachael was alive and well. She flipped some hair out of her face.

"It's time for your motorcycle lessons," Tony said.

That was it? That was the reason why the hit men got worried? All for some lousy motorcycle lessons? If only Whitey had his weapons, then the couple would've been dead.

Today was the first ever lesson in riding a motorcycle for Stiltskin and Whitey. Since it was their first time riding a motorcycle, they almost had a few accidents. Mostly Whitey though-he almost crashed into a sidewalk tree. Said tree wasn't that big, and it would probably cause minor damage. He avoided hitting the tree by falling down on his side. The motorcycle was still moving, so he got a friction burn on his left leg. Tony decided to call it a day after that.

It was soon nighttime. The hit-men trio and Rachael were back in their motel room relaxing. Rachael was reading a book while curled up on the bed. Stiltskin gave Whitey permission to go to Tony's and Gloria's room. The albino limped out of the room. When he got to the couple's door, he found that it was locked, and for a good reason. The albino hit-man picked the locked on the door. All Tony said was give him their weapons and nothing else. As the saying goes, "Some doors are meant to be closed." And indeed they were.

The scene was like any other porno film or books. Two people together on a bed naked. The man on top of the woman. The man thrusting with all his might. The woman moaning, screaming his name at her climax. Well that's how those novels he read described sex. That man sure did have a lot of pornographic material. Not Whitey, some other person he met. Whitey never knew that people also get it on with animals. He suppressed the urge to gouge his eyes out, and shuddered instead. He's just glad he didn't watch 'A Child's First Time.'

Why did he have to remember that? Must resist urge to gouge eyes out. Willpower failing. Now where's his gouge eyes out spoon?

It wasn't the first time that Whitey saw something like this. The first time something like that had happen to him involved one of his first hits. Some woman had found out that her husband was cheating on her. In her grief and rage, she hired The Dwarf to kill her husband, along with that bitch. Stiltskin, wanting to give Whitey something to do, allowed Whitey to do the job.

He just sort of stood there, unmoving, unblinking. It was starting to creep the couple out. They noticed him.

"Whitey, don't you know how to knock?" Gloria asked. It was about time the couple noticed him. For a long time there was nothing but silence. Aren't they going to berate him? Whitey took something from the desk right next to him. He left the room as fast as he could, making sure to close the door on his way out.

"What was that?" Tony asked.

* * *

><p>When he got to his room, he headed straight for the couch. He looked at the palm of his right hand. Turns out he took a metal ball, bell sort of thing. He tosses the bell-ball aside and it just so happens to land near Rachael's bed. It catches the attention of Rachael and she started playing with it. Stiltskin and Whitey started talking to each other. He told Stiltskin about the little incident.<p>

"Were they having sex?" Rachael asked eagerly. She wasn't even part of the conversation, but she joined in any way. Scarface kept glancing at her bed and then the couch.

'Wasn't she at her bed a second ago?' Scarface thought. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen, be fourteen in a few weeks," Rachael answered. All eyes turned on her. It's hard to believe someone like her is in her teens. She kind of acts like a child.

"Time for you to go to bed," Stiltskin said. "Now."

"Not sleepy," the girl replied. She hits the bell-ball back and forth between her hands. Scarface stepped on the bell-ball before it can reach one of her hands. Whitey picked up the girl, who was now on the floor, and carried her to her bed, then dropped her on the bed. Rachael pouted when he did that to her. She was about to protest but stopped once Whitey glared at her. She puts her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. It was hard for her to fall asleep. Eventually she fell asleep.

* * *

><p>The three hit-men left the room once they knew that the girl was sleeping. They ''needed'' to smoke and didn't want to wake the girl up by smoking. They also wanted some privacy away from the girl. It's not like they chose to babysit the girl or anything. Just how the hell did things end up like this anyway?<p>

The girl woke up in the middle of the night. She could sense that something was wrong. She turned her head to her right. There was a bed, an empty bed that is. She searched the floor for any sign of life and found none. Her breathing was starting to become short, her pupils dilating. She slowly made her way to the couch. It was also empty. Rachael darted back to her bed. She thought she heard something. It was very dark in the room, yet she was certain that the three hit-men were gone. She pulled the blanket over herself, shaking while doing so. Did they leave her? People almost always leave her, even if she wished they didn't.

Rachael hated being alone in the dark. It terrified her. There were things in the dark that scared her as well. Monsters. Monster underneath the bed, monsters in the closet. 'He's coming or perhaps he's already here.' Rachael hoped it was the former. If she could have it any other way, she'd rather that he didn't come at all. But his coming is inevitable, so she just had to deal with it. 'Him, the monster, The Dark Man. He's coming or he's already here. There's no way of stopping him from doing or attempting to do something bad. Very bad.' That thought kept Rachael awake. Finally, she fell in a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>Being one of the first to wake up, Rachael soon got bored and decided to wake the three hit-men. She was happy that they didn't leave her. She jumped on Stiltskin bed to wake him up. Even when he woke up, she kept on jumping. She was simply happy to see him. The girl moved on to Scarface and Whitey. She had to jump on them since Scarface was on the floor and Whitey took all the space on the couch. They weren't to happy with the way they've been woken up. Everyone in that room waited to hear the sound of knocking.<p>

'Knock, knock.' Rachael hopped towards the door. She opened it and greeted the couple with a smile.

Tony informed the group that Gloria will be going to a store to get some food.

"Can I come?" Rachael asked eagerly.

"Yes you may," Gloria answered.

The two walked out of the room and down the street. They turned at a corner and disappeared from sight. Tony was stuck with the three hit-men. Stiltskin and Scarface were the only ones who were near Tony. Whitey kept his distance, probably because of what happened the night before. It was somewhat awkward for him to be in the same room as the hit-men. Mostly being with Stiltskin and Whitey. He had practically killed them, at least he thought he did. Scarface was the only one he didn't meet in the year of 1978.

In order to kill some time, Tony asked Stiltskin more questions about the occupation of being a hit-man.

"Have you ever accepted a hit from some odd people?"

Stiltskin thought about what had happen to him years ago.

Stiltskin sensed that someone was in the same room as him. He acknowledge the presence by clearing his throat.

We like for you to eliminate this man here, it said.

It was strange, Stiltskin heard the voice but he didn't hear it with his ears. It's like he heard it in his head. He watched the thing's every move. The thing was nothing more than a floating cloak.

"Come here," Stiltskin demanded. His pondering on how a cloak can float would have to wait until tomorrow.

The figure floated to Stiltskin. It handed him some papers.

"What are you?" asked Stiltskin. He still couldn't believe is eyes.

Call us, it said, the Auditors of Reality.

Stiltskin looked over the papers. For some reason the papers all had a picture of a fat man with two boar like teeth coming out of his mouth. He almost looked like a twisted yet jolly version of Santa Claus. It's as if a child with an over active imagination saw a picture a Santa Claus and decided that boar teeth coming out of his mouth was a good idea. The pictures were so ridiculous that Stiltskin had no choice but to ask if this was some type of joke. The Auditor assured him that it wasn't a joke.

"What's his name?" Stiltskin decided to play along. He figured that he's either dreaming or somebody is playing a prank on him. He'll deal with the prankster later. If there was one that is.

He is simply known as the Hogfather, the Auditor replied.

"I've never heard of him," Stiltskin said. He thought it was Santa Claus.

It then dawned on the Auditor. They were at the wrong place, rather they were in the wrong world. It soon left once it realized their mistake. Stiltskin was at complete lost for words after what just happened.

"Some," Stiltskin finally answered the detectives question.

At long last, Gloria and Rachael came back with some food. The food was in the backpack that they had brought with them. Rachael was the one to hand everybody some food since Gloria didn't want to be near Whitey. The night before was very awkward.

"Hi-ya Whitey!" Rachael somehow managed to catch the albino off guard. He was too busy trying to figure out why the couple didn't berate him, but then he did leave before they had a chance to do that. "What ch'ya doing?"

"Thinking," he mumbled. The girl sat next to him. She didn't seem to be leaving any time soon. The girl was too close to him for his liking. He didn't mind getting physically close to his victims because his job requires it. It is when the victims or anyone else, save for a few people, gets too close to him means that they're up to something.

"Thinking 'bout what?" Rachael asked. Her face was dangerously close to the albino. He pushed her away so he can have more space.

Rachael waited for a reply.

"Is it about last night?" When she asked him that, he got off the couch and left. The girl followed him out of the room. Whitey turned around to face her. He was tempted to tell her to go bother someone else.

"You're tall," said Rachael. She only reached slightly above his waist.

The albino was beginning to wonder if the girl had nothing to say except for the obvious. He continued on walking and she continued on following. He needed for her to stop following him. It was getting extremely annoying. He wondered if that's how others felt when he stalked them. Maybe it was fear that they felt when he stalked or maybe it was a mixture of the two, but mostly fear.

While thinking about stalking, Whitey came up with a plan to get rid of the girl. Not by killing her though. He could get her to follow someone else. Gloria seemed like a good target. He also wanted to see if Rachael can follow a person without getting caught. She did surprise him a little with her greeting after her trip to the store with Gloria. Scarface also mentioned that Rachael appeared near the couch from her bed without him noticing.

"See that woman over there?" He asked and then he grabbed her right shoulder and turned her around. Whitey pointed at Gloria.

"Mean, um, um,...Gloria? Yes," she said.

"Follow her," he told her.

"How long?"

The albino didn't really think that part through. *Like most other things.* He stood still for a while just thinking. The girl was getting impatience and rocked back and forth on her feet to ease her slight boredom. It took a few seconds or minutes but definitely not hours for him to answer the girl.

"Until she notices you," he took his hand off her shoulder.

"Yessir. Bye bye!" The girl ran off to follow Gloria. Whitey hoped that Gloria wouldn't notice Rachael for at least thirty minutes or so. He slipped back into the hotel room as quick as he could. In case if the girl changed her mind.

Gloria had to go back to the store to get something that she had forgotten. Which of course was some clothes. Since a store with clothes was much farther than the one with food, it would take her about an hour to walk to the store and back. That was just perfect for Rachael. It was a great opportunity and as that saying goes, "When opportunity knocks on the door, open it." *Then try to catch that bastard/prankster before he gets too far. It often had a habit of knocking on doors then running off before a person had a chance to open the door. Sometimes, just for the heck of it, opportunity would punch the owner of the door in the face and then run off.*

While she walked to the store, Gloria felt as if someone was following her. She turned around only to find out that it was just a squirrel. It was a good thing that she had a gun with her. Tony had lent it to her when she told him she was going to the store.

Rachael quickly hid behind a brick wall before Gloria could spot her. That was close. Rachael breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't really know why she agreed to follow Gloria. It might have something to do with her making her Whitey happy and impressing him. Though, she didn't know why she wanted to impress him. It must be because she finds the lack of emotions unnatural. What is natural? No, she mustn't ponder about that. She proceeded to follow Gloria again.

Once Gloria got to the store she picked out some clothes for everyone. Rachael found it easier to stalk Gloria once the latter was distracted by the clothes. The girl really hoped that Gloria would get that navy-blue skirt for her. If not, then Rachael would have to get it herself. Along with some stockings and maybe some more skirts or pants. The boots might be good too. They were cute to Rachael.

* * *

><p>"Where's Rachael?" Tony asked.<p>

"With Gloria," Whitey said. He left out the part with the stalking and such.

Tony was silently thankful that Gloria wasn't by herself. Although, he doubt Rachael would help her much. He hoped that nothing bad would happen. Unfortunately, he can't let the trio out of his sight. Why did they have to run into each other?

Rachael went out of the store. She was at a safe distance from Gloria. The girl was disappointed that she couldn't get those boots and pants for it would take too long and keep her from stalking Gloria, but at least she got those skirts. Gloria had put everything in a bag before she walked out.

They were almost at the hotel when Rachael got tired of being unknown to Gloria and decided to surprise the latter. She ran up to the woman and jumped on her.

"Ack!" Gloria turned around to see Rachael.

"Aaaahh!" Rachael jumped back and said cheerfully, "Hi Gloria."

"How long have you've been following me?" Gloria asked.

"Since you went to store," was the girl's reply.

"Why?" Seriously. Why would Rachael follow Gloria without permission?

"Whitey told me," said Rachael. "It seemed like fun," she added.

They were going to have a long talk with everybody when they got to the hotel. Which wasn't that far away.

* * *

><p>Tony open the door to see an upset Gloria. Rachael was also with her. He wondered why Gloria could be upset. It may have something to do with Rachael. Maybe they got into a fight. The only person in the room to know a little as to why Gloria was agitated was Whitey. After all, he did tell Rachael to stalk Gloria. Said girl raced up to him.<p>

"Hi Whitey," Rachael said, "Hi Scarface and Stiltskin."

"When did she find you out?" he questioned.

"I found her out just a few minutes ago," from the tone of her voice, Gloria wasn't all too happy with the stalking. She wasn't mad at Rachael, although Rachael did give her quite a scare. She was mad that Whitey took advantage of the girl. It's not like he won't do something like that.

The rest of the people in the room were amused by what was going on. They could use something like that to help with their being together. Until they part ways, they have something to do while staying with each other.

Gloria passed out the clothes to everyone. Each of them got some sleep wear, so they won't have to sleep in the clothes that they wear during the day. They only got a few, but they figured they can get more later on. Gloria didn't need to talk as her expression said it all. Which Whitey didn't give a damn about. He got what he wanted, an hour to himself and knowing about Rachael's ability to stalk someone. The lady can't hurt him, unless she has her umbrella. He secretly hoped that she didn't bring it. That thing hurts. Luckily she didn't try to stab him with it. Is that even possible?

It reminded him of that movie. There was some madman killing people in very colorful ways. He managed to stab someone with an umbrella, and he opened up the umbrella while it was still in the guy. It was kind of awesome and the albino wonder if he would be able to do that. He would have the test that out.

It was a great thing she didn't bring her umbrella.


	8. Journey

**I like this chapter, so I didn't really revise it.**

The family of three rested beneath the shade of an oak tree. They were tired. Charlie was sleeping with his back up against the tree. He was a little cranky before since he didn't get enough sleep while on the road. Wanda proposed that they stop and rest. So here they were, rested underneath the leaves of a huge oak tree. Wanda and Sara were both drinking some water from a bottle. They each had their own. The three were also hungry, but their food was limited and they were almost out. They would have to get some more later. They had been traveling on the road for days.

"Where do you think we should go?" Sara asked her sister Wanda. Wanda reached for her bottle and took a sip of water.

"Father. We can go and see if he's alright," Wanda said. '_If he's alive. Please don't be dead dad. I'm begging, please._'

"But he's in Ohio. We're in West Virginia," Sara said. Beside, she barely knew her father. He rarely visited them and when he did he was often distant. Not in the physical sense, though he was that, but in the emotional sense. It was like he was some sort of stranger. A stranger that happened to be her father.

"We have to try. Ohio isn't that far from us," Wanda replied.

Sara lay down on the grass. She thought over her sister's plan to go to Ohio. She then started to think of her hometown. She missed them. Everyone, she missed everyone in that whole town. At first she couldn't believe that her best friend had died. Mary had been a perfectly healthy teenage girl. Her only worries were boys, school, clothes, and family. At first it seem like Mary only had the sniffles and would recover like she always does. Then, it got worse. Sara hoped with all her heart that Mary would get better. She ignored the news, which had stories of people dieing from flu-like symptoms. Sara believed that her friend would get better. Then, just like that, Mary was gone.

Mary's parents cried day after day. It was hard for them. They lost their precious little girl. Sara cried with them. Mary was like another sister to Sara. Mary's parents were the next to go, but they didn't die together. One after the other, that is how they died. Other people in the town started to die soon afterward. The bus driver, the teachers, Joe Melby, she never got the chance to tell him how she really felt about him. She was going to tell him but she got nervous and the words would not come out. Sara would laugh and say never mind afterward. She made a promise to tell him later. She never did.

The last person to die was Aunt Willie. The two girls took care of her before she died. When she finally died, Charlie, who had a feeling that something was wrong but did not know what, bawled when he realized that Aunt Willie will never be able to hug him anymore. He cried while Wanda held him. Wanda was crying with him and so was Sara. After that they left.

Sara felt something wet on her cheeks. Had she been crying the whole time? The sound of sniffling rushed into her ears. Sara glanced up at Wanda. Wanda had her head buried in her knees. Her shoulders were shaking. Sara wondered if Wanda still misses Frank. She was looking forward to marry him. Sara could picture Wanda's face when she came home one day and told them that she was engaged to Frank. That she was going to become Mrs. Presston. She was crying, not tears of sadness, but tears of humongous amount of joy. Her smile lit up her whole face. To Sara, Wanda was beautiful.

'Why did he have to die? Why did everyone have to die so soon? Everything's going too fast. It was supposed to be a fun summer. Why? What could have caused all of this?' All of these thoughts weren't new to Sara. She has been having those thoughts ever since her siblings and her left town.

Sara soon fell asleep. Her dreams consisted of everybody alive and having fun together.

"Sara. Sara."

_ {"Not now. I have to get ready for Wanda's wedding," Sara told Charlie. "And so do you."_

_ Sara couldn't wait to go to her sister's wedding. There will be dancing, food, and fireworks. Sara spotted Mary walking and joined up with her._

_ "I can't wait. Can you?" Mary asked._

_ "No. I can't wait either. I really hope Joe is going to be there. That way I can tell him..." but she was cut off._

_ "Sara. Sara," She turned her head to see who was calling her. There was nobody behind her._

_ "Sara. Sara," the calling got louder. Sara searched frantically for the caller. She ignore her friends protest._

_ "Sara. Sara," the calling persisted. Sara still couldn't find the caller._

_ "Sara. Sara! Wake up!"}_

The teenager jolted up. It was all a dream. Nothing more than a dream. It can never happen. Not when everyone's dead. At least in her town they were.

"We have to leave now," Wanda informed Sara.

Charlie was observing the two sisters. His sisters. They're very nice to him, even if he makes them mad, they always forgave him. Charlie loves his sister.

The young boy felt something rumbling in his stomach. It hurt. He would have to notify Wanda of his hunger. He staggered to Wanda, who was only a few paces from him. When he got there, he tugged on Wanda's sleeve. Wanda turned her attention to him. Charlie pointed at his stomach and then his mouth.

"You're hungry?" Wanda got out a bag of animal crackers and handed him some.

Charlie nodded his head. It was his way of saying thanks. He gobbled the animal crackers down quickly.

After the siblings had something to eat they went on their scooter. This time Charlie rode with Sara.

"Damn. Out of gas," Sara cursed at her bad luck. Wanda stopped her scooter abruptly, but not intentionally.

"Out of gas too," She said. Wanda got off of her scooter. The sisters would have to walk their scooters to some city. How long will it take? They didn't know.

The siblings soon grew tired of walking. They got off the road and rested in grassy sides. A sign had told them that the nearest city was only two miles away. Wanda and Sara would have to refill the tanks with gas once they got to the city. Getting some more supplies also seem like a good idea.

After they were well rested the siblings started to walking again. It was noon time when they got to the city. Charlie's watch was very helpful to them.

The city was different than theirs. Not just in size, but in people. There were still people in the city. The city was full of life. The siblings were over joyed to finally meet some people. They continued walking. Some people gave them odd looks but that was understandable. It's not everyday a person sees three "children"; one's technically an adult and the other is a teenager, but the onlookers assumed that they were related, siblings perhaps, and would like to refer to them as children, wandering around with scooters.

Wanda asked some strangers if they knew where the gas stations were. They gave her some directions to get to a gas station. One person gave them a direction to Kathy's Diner. It must have been because the stranger thought that the siblings were hungry. The siblings didn't have to worry about money since Wanda took some just in case. She didn't tell her younger sister and brother until now. The only problem was Wanda wasn't sure if they money was enough. They went to Kathy's diner to eat. Wanda and Sara tied up the scooters and locked them.

They walked into Kathy's Diner and sat down at a table. It was nice and cool inside. A welcome change to the summer's heat. Wanda, Sara, and Charlie all waited for some to serve them. Wanda told them to pick to cheapest meal on the menu so they can save money.

"Where you guys from?" a woman asked. She was sitting in a table right by the siblings and was listening to their conversation. Most people would call that eavesdropping.

Sara answer the strawberry-blond's question, "We're from Morgantown."

"Why are you all here for?" the blond question. Sara didn't know if she should tell her.

"You've heard about the flu, right?" Sara asked.

"Sure did. I think some people here have. The news reporter said it's nothing to worry about though. I'm not to sure about the nothing to worry about. Seems pretty serious to me though. A few people died. One of them was my father," the blond finished. "I'm Sally Welkin, by the way," she added.

"I'm Wanda Godfrey and this is Charlie."

"I'm Sara. Everyone is dead from where we came from," Sara told Sally.

"Bummer," was all Sally could say. "Where you guys headed for?"

"Ohio," Wanda said. "Our father is there and we are hoping to meet him."

"Just by walking?"

"No, we ride on scooters."

"I see, well it was nice knowing you. Bye."

"Bye."

The siblings ordered some food and ate. There were some people sneezing and coughing in the diner. It was worrisome for the siblings. The rest of the people in the diner took no notice of the coughing and sneezing. Perhaps they didn't know about the dangerous flu, which is doubtful, or perhaps they didn't want to think about it. They thought that if they didn't think about it then everything will be fine. Life doesn't work that way. The people will have to face the truth. A person can't just wish for it to happen, unless if they are from a different reality.

*If a creature were from a different reality and then came to earth, it is likely to be killed or experimented on so humans can harness its power of wishing to use, or some evil scientist would steal the wishing creature. It'd be like a movie. Fill with fantasy, adventure, suspense, romance, and the true meaning of friendship and what it means to be a kid.*

Wanda payed the bill. She and her siblings left the restaurant. They untied the scooters and went in search of the closes gas station. Wanda had to ask around again, for she had forgotten where one was. Finally a man led her to a gas station.

Wanda went inside and was surprised to meet Sally.

"Small world, ain't it?" Sally said. She noticed the money in Wanda's hand. She peered at the window and saw Sara holding Charlie's hand. "Your little brother is really cute," she noted.

Wanda went to the counter to pay for gas when Sally stopped her.

"You know, I can give you a lift to Ohio," Sally told her. "I really want to leave this town."

Wanda considered her options. She could save money and it would be easier and quicker to get to Ohio.

Sally waited for an answer. Wanda must have been thinking about her response deeply because it took a while to answer.

"We'll join," she said.

"Yes!" Finally, Sally would have a reason to travel somewhere.

Wanda put her money back into her pockets. The two young women left the store.

Outside, Sara was talking to Charlie. The young boy wanted to know what was taking Wanda so long. Although, he didn't say it, couldn't say it , to be more precise, his body language was what told Sara. She was explaining to him that Wanda had to pay for the gas.

When she saw Wanda, she did not expect to see Sally.

"Sally is going to take us to Ohio," Wanda informed.

"I'll get my car," Sally left the three siblings. Sara was glad that she did not have to ride those dreaded scooters anymore. She was glad to be able to get to Ohio quicker, but she was...afraid. What was she afraid of? Is she afraid of her father being dead? Or is she afraid that he is alive? She's afraid of what might be there. She is afraid of her father. Her father's distance scared her.

"Come on in," Sally said.

The siblings got into the blue chevrolet. Sally drove to to Ohio.

"He doesn't talk that much, does he?" Sally motion towards Charlie.

"He can't talk," Wanda said.

"How come? Is he mute?" Sally asked.

"When he was three, he had a really bad fever that damaged his brain. He can understand what you're saying, he just won't be able to tell you."

Sally changed the subject before it got too dark.

"How old are you?" Sally asked Wanda.

"I'm twenty-one, Sara is sixteen and Charlie is twelve," Wanda answered.

"Do you know how to drive a car?" Sally was wandering about that. "I'm twenty-five," she added.

"Yes, but it broke down and I never had the chance to fix it."

"Bummer," was all Sally could say.

"Here we are," Sally said as Wanda woke up Sara and Charlie.

The car was parked in front of small, one story house. The lights were off. Sally assumed it was because the owner was sleeping. She didn't want to think of the other possibility. Once they were out of the car, Wanda went up to the door and rang the doorbell. She waited. No one answered, so she rang it again and again and again until finally somebody answered the door.

"What do you-Wanda?" a man with an unshaven face asked. He was in nothing but a housecoat.

"Dad," Wanda reached out to hug her father.

"Where's Sara and Charlie?"

"Behind me."

"Hi dad," Sara said. Charlie went to hug his dad after he saw Wanda hugging their father.

"Hi, I'm Sally Welkin." Sally greeted the siblings' father. "I drove your kids here."

"Thank you," he said. "Come on in."

The siblings and Sally went into the man's house. He got out some coffee for the grown ups and teenager and hot chocolate for Charlie. They all sat at a small table.

"Where's Willie? I would've thought that she'd bring you here,"

"She died. The flu killed her," Wanda answered.

"Along with everyone else," Sara added bitterly.

"Everyone? So, you three are the only survivors from that city," their father concluded. He was shocked that Willie died. "You all need some sleep. Must have traveled a lot to get here."

Wanda led everyone to the guess room.

Once everyone was asleep, sat down on a chair and wept. He cried for Willie and he cried for everyone else in that city. He cried for not being there for his children. He felt like a failure. After his wife died, he had a hard time taking care of them, so he left them at their Aunt Willie's house. Wanda was upset that he was leaving, but she knew he would come visit. Charlie was too young to understand. Sara was hurt. He often wondered if that was the reason why they have a hard time bonding with each other.

He wished he could make it up to them. He really did. He remembered before his wife died, before Charlie got really sick. They were such a happy family. Charlie was a little chatter box at three years of age. He was also very bright. Then he got really sick. Poor toddler couldn't even call out for his parents. He just lay in bed, almost lifeless. Sara and Wanda were afraid he was going to die. He didn't, but he lost his ability to speak.

It was time for to start sleeping. It was almost midnight. He walked to his room, careful not to wake up the guest. When he got to the bed, he rubbed his eyes. Then he lay down and slept.

In the guest room Charlie was tossing and turning like a storm. He was having a really bad dream. Really, really bad.

{_A smiling man looked down at Charlie. It wasn't those nice smiles that people always gave Charlie. That smile seemed unnatural on that man's face, if it can be called a face. It was shrouded in darkness, most likely due to the man wearing a cloak._

_ That smile was a warning to Charlie. A warning to get out as fast as he could. _

_ The boy was lost in a dark forest. Also a mostly dead one too. Charlie slowly crept away from the smiling man. Then he took off running. The man was running after him with something in his hand. It was somewhat shiny. The man's smile grew wider as he chased the boy._

_ Charlie looked around himself, searching frantically for a safe spot. He saw the man catching up to him. Charlie turned to his left, twigs and sticks scratched his face. He held out his hands to help him with being in the dark._

_ Unknown to Charlie there was a big tree root where he was headed at. He ran and tripped when his foot got caught in the root. He fell with a thud. His knees and palms were skinned._

_ Charlie got up as quick as he could, ignored the stinging pain in his legs, and went right back to running. He had to get out of there._

_ The smiling man was closing in on the boy. He was getting closer and closer._

_ For some reason Charlie's legs felt like lead. It became harder for him to run. His lungs felt like some one got a blowtorch and set them on fire. It was extremely difficult to for him to breathe. He wanted to stop running and take a nap, but he knew he had to keep on going._

_ It was then that it struck him. What if he had been going in around in circles? He had been turning this way and that way, and it was very dark in that forest._

_ He wished his sisters were with him. They always protected him when somebody tried to hurt him. He felt that they would save him from the smiling man._

_ Charlie turn around to see the smiling man looking down at him. The man's arm was above his head. Something was in his hands. It was shiny, but it was also sharp. The man smile somehow grew even wider, baring more teeth. _

_ The smiling man swung down the ax at Charlie. The young boy opened his mouth and...}_

Screamed. His screamed reached the ears of everybody in the same room as him.

Wanda shook him awake. Once he was awake, he put his head on Wanda's chest and cried. He sobbed uncontrollably. Wanda rubbed his back.

"Poor thing. He must have had a really frightening dream," Sally remarked.

"What's going on in here?" asked Mr. Godfrey.

"He just had a bad dream," Sara said. She truly felt sorry for her little brother. What ever the dream was, she hope she didn't have to have it. It seemed like a really bad dream. Too bad Charlie couldn't tell her what the dream was all about.

"Alright. If he doesn't calm down or if you need anything, please let me know," Mr. Godfrey left the guest room.

Charlie calmed down after a while. He was tired but he didn't feel like sleeping. He was afraid he might have the bad dream again. Sara offered to let him sleep with her. He felt safe that way and thus went to sleep, cuddling with his big sister.

Sally and Wanda went back to sleep after they knew the other two were asleep.

All was well in that tiny house.


	9. Convicts

**Remember kids, if you want to reach true happiness, then all you have to do is _sacrifice the virgin and smear her blood on a lamb_. Then grab a head from the pile of heads to your left. Make sure it's your left or else horrific things might happen. Just be careful with any police. They want to take your happiness away. After that, you must slit the lambs throat. Drain it of blood, and the rest is too graphic to tell you on here so you pretty much have to figure that out on your own. **

An old woman, about fifty years old, sat down on a log and took a pebble out of her shoe. Her blond hair that was normally tied back, fell on her face as she rubbed her feet.

"Would you hurry it up, Delia?" Charlie barked. "I'm busy," she snapped. The Turk watched the two argue. They've been arguing for a while now. Ever since they were imprison they would have these arguments. Arguments about whose fault it was that the plan fail. The Turk joined in those arguments whenever they tried to put the blame on him. They mostly put the blame on the hit-men. Delia was the one who was most bitter towards them. She had expected Stiltskin to at least help her, instead, he abandons her. Then she finds out that the contingency plan was all in vain. The damn albino couldn't even stick to the plan. He was supposed to shoot the pope when the police arrived. Can he not resist trying to kill everyone in the opera house?

The worst thing about it was they, not the hit-men, were imprisoned. Also, Stiltskin stole some money from them. That bastard. He left a note saying it was for some hospital bills. There would not have been any bills if the hit-men had follow the plan.

Now they were outside the prison walls. It actually wasn't hard to break out. Delia managed to get a guard to let them go outside. The guard was too sick to be thinking straight, he might have been delirious, so he let them out. The guard that watches the outside door couldn't say anything. On the ground, right next to the door-guard was some phlegm. A lot of it, and blood. His breathing was labored. He didn't bother to look up when a few prisoners were escaping.

The next step was getting to and out of the wall, by using the gate of course. It wasn't hard.

Twenty meters or so from the walls of the prison, the Turk felt the urge to bang his head against a tree. Delia and Charlie were still fighting. For some reason the hit-men's name kept coming up in the argument. The Turk had mixed feelings towards the assassins. He was mad when Scarface betrayed them, just like everyone else. He sort of liked Stiltskin, for Stiltskin gave him comics to read, but Stiltskin left them in their time of need, so he was mad at Stiltskin too. His feelings towards Whitey, well, the albino just creeps him out. He always had a habit of popping out of no where and scaring the shit out of the Turk. In fact the Turk first met the albino while he was crawling around the room. He crawled out from underneath the bed and stared at the the Turk. Then he crawled away. The Turk never asked for a reason. He was to scared to ask. He later found out that Whitey was part of Stiltskin's group. Still, why did he have to crawl? It's creepy.

Anyways, once Delia and Charlie stopped arguing, the grouped walked some more, a long way actually, and stopped when they found a road. They waited for a car to come by, so they can hitch-hike. It was hour before one came, well it felt like that to them, and stopped nearby them.

A man with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and big round glasses rolled down the window of his car and asked, "Need a lift?"

"Why thank you," Delia said as she tried to put on the sweetest voice she can do. She happens to be very good at playing an innocent old lady. The man fell for her trap.

The group of convicts got into the car. The man didn't bother to ask where they were from or how they got there. He had more important things in mind.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel: Gloria walked into her room to find Whitey crawling around on the floor. It seemed as if he were looking for something.

How on earth did he get here? She had locked the doors. Did he pick the lock? She then noticed that the cover for the air vent was on the floor. She tried to say something but couldn't. Instead, she kept opening and closing her mouth. Whitey just stared at her. He then crawled towards the air vent, he didn't want her to snap out of her trance, grab something and throw it at him. Unfortunately for him, Rachael came into the room, saw him, and then jumped on him. She giggled while she did that. The sheer force of her jumping on him caused them both to fall flat on the floor. Tony came in just then and shook his head at the sight.

* * *

><p>Mr. Hennessey did something awesome as usual. In fact being awesome was one of his job, but he left because the job was not up to his level. He had just beaten up two guys who were wielding knives. He did it like it was nothing. Like it was something he does on a regular basis, like baking chocolate chip cookies. There wasn't even a scratch on him. Then the knife maniacs tried to come after Mr. Hennessey again, so he started fighting them. Again. Stanley watched in awe, and Stella got out her can of mace and metal knuckles, and joined the fight. She sprayed mace on one guy and punched him in the guts, sending him back. The other man tried to sneak up on her, but both she and Mr. Hennessey punched the man on the head at the same time, knocking him out. Stella turned around and kick the man, whom she sprayed mace on, in the face and knocked him out. After they were done fighting, Mr. Hennessey had to drag an awestruck Stanley back to the car. Then, they drove off.<p>

* * *

><p>It was uncomfortable in the man's car. He had not said anything since Delia and others first got inside. Instead, the man chose to stare at the road.<p>

"Excuse me, but what is your name?" Charlie asked.

"Mathew Smith," the man said coolly. He didn't ask for the strangers names, he was too busy thinking about seeing his family.

Charlie was reminded of the hit-men for some reason. It may be because of the fact that the man did not talk very much, unless he was asked a question. The albino rarely talked and when he did, all his conversations were with Stiltskin. Charlie tried, really tried, his best to initiated a conversation with the albino, but he never got a response. Now that he thought about, it was Stiltskin who did most of the talking.

Oh well, Charlie always thought the albino was a little bit creepy. Always sneaking around. Always appearing so suddenly. The Turk once told him of the crawling incident. The albino also seemed a little too...cheerful when he was told to eliminate some people. It was hard to tell what the guy was feeling, since he didn't show much emotion except for annoyance and anger, and a cold indifference towards the life of others. The only time he sort of lit up was when he was promised food. Especially when it's ice cream or candy or steak. He may or may not have liked those McDonald's Happy Meals, but that was probably because of the toys, which the Turk also liked.

The toys always ended up broken, destroyed, and discarded after a while. If it was an action figure, the limbs and head would be torn off from the torso. Sometimes the limbs were in the wrong place, with the head being mounted on an arm or leg, and one of the limbs where the head should be. Sometimes they were hanged. The reasons why he did that, Charlie never found out. He also liked watches. Charlie speculated that the albino might have been mentally challenge, kind of like the Turk, or very _**very**_ disturbed. On the bright side, he was easily bought by all that stuff. That's how Charlie got the albino to kill his brother.

He never really liked his twin, always the good one, always getting away with something. If Charlie did something bad, he would get punish, but his brother didn't. His brother never got punished. Born into a strict Catholic family, rules were something to be followed. His parents were always strict with him, but not on his brother. When his parents found out that his beliefs differed from their's, they were ashamed of him. They were proud of his twin, who had dreams of becoming an archbishop. When they, Delia and him, came up with the plan to kill the pope, he took a chance to get back at his brother. Why did he have to get someone else to kill his brother? Why couldn't he do it himself? One answer to that can be because of something to do with evidence. Another reason is that he couldn't bring himself to kill his twin brother. His brother never really did anything wrong, except the normal kid stuff and being their parents' favorite little boy. But, he watched his brother die, watched as his brother fell to the floor, unable to believe that Charlie would do this to him. He watched as the albino knelt beside his twin brother to take the knife out and then left the room to go kill that old woman. After giving his brother one last look, Charlie followed the albino and saw something he wished he could have unseen. The old woman was struggling within the albino's grasp, terrified. She looked at Charlie pleadingly. She had mistook Charlie for his twin brother and had hoped that he would save her. He didn't. Then, the albino used his knife, the same one he had just killed Charlie's brother with, and sliced the woman's throat. She didn't die right then, instead she fell on her knees after the albino release her, holding her neck and gasping for air. Charlie did nothing to save her. Opting, instead, to watch her struggle on the floor until she finally died. That albino, he just stood there too, not even bothering to end her suffering. Then he looked at Charlie, wanting to know if he could kill someone else, and how soon it will be when he could kill that person.

"That's good...for now," Charlie could have sworn that the albino looked a bit disappointed. God, he felt sick, but he couldn't show it. He had to fight the bile that came up his throat and watched as Whitey nonchalantly cleaned up the mess that he had made.

Charlie was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the tires screeching. Mathew had stop the car and went outside. He ran towards a boy with red hair and picked him up. A woman, the mother, ran towards Mathew and hugged him. They were happy to be together. The man and woman were talking to each other. Charlie couldn't make out what they were saying. Mathew kept motioning at the car, over and over, while he spoke. After they were done the family walked back to the car.

"Hello, I'm Samantha and this is my son Noah. Mathew told me about you," the woman said. "Would you like to stay for diner?"

"It be a pleasure," said Delia.

The people got out of the car and walked toward the house. It was a pretty decent two story house. There were no other houses beside it. Charlie remembered Mathew driving to a gate. _Must be one of those rich gate in communities._ The house was almost as big as his brother's mansion. There was even a creek that ran through there. The group of people walked into the house. It had a pretty little garden, with all types of flowers. The idea of actually having a nice dinner sounded great to the convicts.

* * *

><p>Rachael ran out of the room before anyone could spot her. She had to be quick or her plan will fail. In the room, Stiltskin was pretending to listen to Whitey's question about where his jacket to his suit is. Stiltskin wishes that Whitey would solve his own damn problems, and by solving he means thinking things through and not killing other people, instead of relying on him. The guy's getting too dependent on Stiltskin, kind of like those crazy girlfriends in those movies. Whitey should be more like Scarface when dealing with his problems. When Scarface has a problem, he just...stares at the wall and also kills people. Well, at least he thinks things through. Hopefully.<p>

Besides, Stiltskin was too busy trying to get that TV to work. He doesn't have a radio handy and the only other form of entertainment was Rachael's books. He has always wondered what kind of books she reads.

He didn't want anyone else to help him with the TV, especially those two hit-men. The last time he gave them the task of trying to fix the television, in order for them to feel better about themselves and useful, Whitey ended up shooting the television and then Scarface threw it out the window. He was smart enough to open the window before he did that. Then somebody just had to complained to the landlord and they were kicked out. Which is why Stiltskin isn't asking for help with the TV.

After not getting an answer, Whitey left the room. Just as he was about to close the door Rachael ran right pass him. She was wearing his jacket. The chase was officially on.

In the couple's room, Gloria and Tony were having a small chat, when they heard somebody running outside. Tony opened the door and saw Whitey chasing Rachael. Rachael, for some reason, had the albino's jacket and was running away with it. She was giggling while she ran. She looked funny with the jacket on. It was too large for her and almost reached her knees. The sleeves also hid her hands. Tony went to inform Gloria on what was happening outside.

"I'm going out to help Rachael before anything bad happens to her."

* * *

><p>Whitey walked into an alley. Rachael couldn't have gotten far, she just went into the alley. He couldn't find her there. She must be hiding in one of the garbage pans, she seems like the sort of person to do that. Whitey turned around and saw Rachael running away from him. Luckily, she wasn't far, so he quickly grabs her and picks her up. She has not stop giggling after she was caught. Her face was red. Must be because of all that running and giggling she did.<p>

When they got out of the alley, Tony appeared. He was glad that Rachael was seemingly unharmed. He offered to hold the girl, but she refused to let go of the albino's neck. This should be interesting.

* * *

><p>Mr. Hennessey drove the car while Stella and Stanley slept. He was still looking for Gloria. After finding the knife and blood on the floor, he was worried. The fact that someone who he thought was dead was out on the loose, did nothing to quell his worrying. She used to have nightmares because of that man. She always woke up right before he is about to kill her, but not before he killed everyone else. Mr. Hennessey swore that if anyone hurt her, they won't see the next day. He thought the police took care of the hit-men. He remembered knocking the old one out. Did he get away and Mr. Hennessey didn't know it? But how? When he finds them, they'll be sorry.<p>

Dinner was nice. The adults were busy talking while Noah read his book. They have gotten the name of the hitch-hikers. Delia, Charlie, and a man who calls himself the Turk. Noah thought about those names while reading. To him, they sounded familiar. He remembered watching TV when he was ten years old and the news was on. There was an assassination attempt on the pope in San Francisco. The shooter was shot and believe to be dead. He always thought the idea of an albino hit-man was absurd. The names of the people behind the assassination attempt were Charlie, Delia, and the Turk. The kid doesn't say anything about that to his parents. The people seem too nice to be killers. Beside he's getting lonely and really wants some company. Most of the kids at that summer school program are sick and just last week, it was closed down. Since the houses are spaced far apart from each other, he had not seen anyone other than his parents. He's quite happy for the company he has. So, he kept his mouth shut.

* * *

><p>Nighttime at the hotel and everybody was sleeping at their usual places. Well, mostly everyone. Whitey woke up and saw that Rachael was sleeping on him. He pushed her off, since it was getting hard for him to breathe. Instead of going back to her bed, she fell asleep on the floor.<p>

She's a very strange girl. She said that she took his jacket so she can play with him. She isn't afraid of him. Most kids cry when they see him, and then they run away from him. Not that he cares. She laughs whenever she sees him but then again when is she ever not laughing, smiling, or giggling? Almost never. And she's always following him around, but then she follows everyone, but he seems to be her favorite. She is a very strange girl. She's probably planning something. He thinks.


	10. Kitties

**"This is your left...your gonna die" Some show on ATHF**

A week or so had past and the crew was still stuck at the motel. Rachael was inside, watching TV, the hit-men were outside, doing whatever it is that they do slightly best, and the couple were in their own room.

The news was pretty much mundane and boring to Rachael, she preferred those Saturday morning cartoons. She liked that New Adventures of Flash Gordan and that Twilight Zone series. She sat crossed leg on the couch and ate a bowl of cereal, being careful not to spill any, Whitey would be mad if she were to spill anything. He's kind of scary when he's mad. She also hates it when others are mad at her, especially when it's Whitey who is mad at her. Mad him equals something bad for her, or something like that. Gloria had just gotten new milk from the corner store, the refrigerators were still working, thankfully, and so Rachael thought it was the perfect time to eat cereal. The girl sort of wondered if the couple had their own mini-fridge. She wanted one. She watched the news, stared at the TV actually, as if it were some sacred thing. The news was about the plague, as usual. The plague was all they talked about these days. She wanted to hear something else. Anything but the plague. Cartoons. She wanted to watch cartoons.

The three hit-men were outside minding their own business. Whitey was currently opening the outside air vent so he can go in and travel. He's been doing that for days. Stiltskin was talking to Scarface, when they both heard gunshots coming from their room. They dismissed it, thinking that Rachael must have been watching a movie, maybe an old western movie or one of those spy movies. They also heard screams. Must be a horror film or maybe the damsel in distress is in trouble.

Inside the ventilation system, the albino was having no problems traveling that maze. He ignored that foul stench, he was used to it, just like he was used to dark, enclosed spaces. He decided to watch the couple for a while. For entertainment, not for any perverted reasons or anything else like that. He's been doing that for days also and he has yet to be caught.

Rachael was bored watching the news, it got interesting, and a little sad in the middle, but then that funny music came on and the screen changed to a picture of a smiling flower and some words that said they were having technical difficulties and to please stand by. So, she sat there bored, with nothing to do, except for reading and she didn't feel like it. She sat on the couch until she realized that the air vent cover was not on where it should be. Then she had this very fun idea of traveling through the air ventilation system. It was the perfect way to end her boredom. She crawled into the semi dark space, swallowing the tiny bit of fear she felt and started to crawl again.

As she was crawling she saw a humanoid figure. She crawled some more to get a better look at the figure and saw that it was one of her most favoritest person. How he became her favorite person he has yet to be find out.

"Whi-," she was about to say until he put his hand over her mouth. "Mhhi. Mhhoff mff mmmph?"(Hi. How are you?)

The albino wished he has his weapons with him now, especially that chloroform. It was often a quick and easy way for turning a person off. Knives were good too, and guns are even better. They take care of a lot of people in a short amount of time and since he's good with guns, they stayed down for a very, very long time. Needless to say, he really wants his weapons back.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"I could have but I thought that my brother would take care of you."

Scarface hated it when Stiltskin mention his brother. He didn't want to think about what had happened. He also hated how Stiltskin always changed the subject whenever he wants to talk about his near death experience. Sure, he did have some sort of amour, a crappy makeshift one, that should not have worked, but it did. In fact, why is he complaining, he should be happy that he is still alive. Well, my friends, he just curious and wants to know how he or even Whitey survived. Especially Whitey. He also would have been more happier if that albino creep wasn't alive.

Just then, a thug came by and demanded that they give him some money. He was very pathetic, his gun even shook while he held it. The two hit-men just chose to ignore him and continued with their conversation.

"D-don't ignore m-m-me!" the thug screamed. "I'll-I'll shoot!"

The Dwarf looked at Scarface and the man got the message.

"Time to go get the ax," he said out loud so the thug could hear him.

The thug watched the man with the scar on his face leave to go fetch the ax. His eyes widen as Stiltskin glared at him. He was staring a man with a gun in his hand down. Let that sink in. He didn't blink nor wavered when the man pointed the gun at his face.

The thug saw that the man was unafraid and it scared him. If a gun pointed at his face didn't scare the man than he must have been through some pretty tough things and he survived them. "Wh-wh-who are y-y-you?"

"The biggest hit-man west of Chicago. The Dwarf, Rupert Stiltskin." He has always wanted to say that.

When he said that, the thug ran away. He was not going to face someone like that. The man might have connections. Mafia-like connections. Or the man could be an undercover cop. Either way, he wasn't going to mess with somebody like that. He valued his life too much. Then Scarface came out and watched the thug with a bored expression, which was right before somebody screaming. Finally, something interesting was about to happen, unless one were to count that pathetic thug.

"Whitey got caught," Stiltskin said. Better go get him out of trouble, he thought. Another normal day for him.

* * *

><p>"D-damn it, damn it," the thug murmured to himself. "I'll n-never get this d-damn thing to work!" He punched the white van behind him and found out that it wasn't the best idea. It hurt. Badly.<p>

A dark-skinned woman appeared next to him, putting her hands on his shoulder. "Don't worry David," she said. "We'll get out soon." She pulled off the band from one of her pigtails and readjusted it.

"Th-thanks Lorene."

An other man, about the same age as David, greeted them, "Next time, I'm doing it." He wrapped his arms around David's shoulder. "Hey buddy. How are you?"

"Lemme g-g-go,K-ken. N-nnn-ow. N-now."

"Fine, fine," Ken took his arms off David.

They were, what some would call, hoodlums, thugs, and anything else that held the same meaning, but to them they were more than that. They were friends. And friends stick together, no matter what the circumstances are.

As of now, they are stuck in San Francisco with no transportation, save for walking, and no money. It sucked for them.

* * *

><p>Stanley awoke in the backseat of the car. He tried to remember how he got there or what happened to him, but his headache wouldn't allow him. Not to mention, his strangely, burning eyes. 'Wait a minute, pounding headache, burning eyes.' It was all coming back to him. Stella. 'She must have knocked me out.' He remembered most of what happened now, the rest was a bit fuzzy. It had something to do with him doing something and Stella reacting. Now, he will never ever greet her from behind.<p>

* * *

><p>The couple looked at the albino, who was lying on the floor, and Rachael, who was a couple of feet away from the albino. The thought of Whitey watching them for who knows how long was enough to send shivers down their spines, especially Gloria. Well, it would have been, if it weren't for the fact that he looked pathetic lying on the floor, holding his hand, grimacing. That, and Rachael was with him. Rachael always followed him around, for some inexplicable reason. Not to long afterward, Stiltskin burst into the room and pulled Whitey up, using the albino's tie to do that, and marched out of the room, still holding the other man's tie. The couple watched, unused to seeing something like that happened. It's not everyday that one sees something like that happening. They looked at each other and decided to never mention what has happened. Ever. Unless it was to torment the albino whenever he got out of line.<p>

"Rachael, spit that out. It's not edible," Tony told the girl, who was currently chewing on one of the screws. She spit it out like he told her to.

Rachael did not bother to get off the floor. She thinks she should apologize to him. She didn't mean to hurt him, so it is only fair that she apologizes to him.

"She bit me," Whitey said, showing his injured hand to his boss.

"Clean it up then," Stiltskin said a tad bit too harshly. "I will talk to Rachael later," he added quickly once he saw the expression on his protege's face. 'Damn. Oh well, the man needs to take care of himself. He's capable. He's an adult and therefor should be capable. Although, it did look like it hurts. Who knew Rachael can bite that hard? Hard enough to draw blood. Yeah, Whitey should get that cleaned, don't want it to get infected. Time to go talk to Rachael and see how she's fairing.'

The white-haired man quickly put rubbing alcohol into his wounds and damn did it sting. Rachael, she bit him not too long after he put his hand over her mouth. He tried to hit her, but the change of position caused him to lose his balance and topple forward, while hitting the air-vent cover, onto the floor, and bringing the girl with him.

Someone out there must be getting a kick out of his injuries. He is sure of it. What else can explain all the injuries so far: bloody nose, friction-burnt leg, bitten hand, and all the others?

"You got hurt by a girl," Scarface quipped. He was about to add something about the albino getting hurt by women in general or better yet, everybody, but decided against it after he saw Whitey glaring at him. It's not worth starting a fight with the albino, without his weapons the man can barely fight. His injured hand certainly isn't going to help. Scarface also knew that once the white-haired man did get his weapons back, he would be a goner.

"...you got stabbed by sewing needles...," Whitey mummer, not too long after Scarface had left the bathroom. He, like Scarface, knew that getting into a fight was a bad idea. That man was a much better fighter then he was. Also, Stiltskin would be mad at him.

"Why did you bite his hand, Rachael?" Stiltskin asked the girl.

"Hard time breathing," she answered quickly, still smiling. The older man took note of her hands rhythmic action of clenching and unclenching.

"I am not angry with you," he told the girl. "But Whitey is and you should apologize to him." It's best to be gentle in a time like this. Most children respond better. He had a lot of practice dealing with children. Specifically nieces and nephews. They're so cute, but some were so bratty.

"Yessir," the girl said, leaving the couple's room to go find that albino and say sorry. She is hoping the she could get him to smile. It sure would be nice. He always seemed to be in a bad mood or in no mood at all. She remembered that somebody told her about how nice it was to see others smile. She wished she could remember more about that person, he seemed kind. That would have to wait, right now, she has to say sorry.

She quietly opened the door, afraid, for some reason, of what might happen. Perhaps, it was his reaction that she was scared of. She did bite his hand after-all. She quickly scanned the room and saw that the bathroom door is opened. Her legs were shaking as she went inside. She smiled and said "Sorry."

The man blinked when he heard those words. He felt his lips twitch downward right after she said those words. He did nothing but stand hunched over the bathroom sink, frowning; waiting for the girl to leave. She didn't. Afterward, he grasped the girl's shoulder and threw her out of the bathroom.

"Sorry," she said again as she heard the door slam. She put her hand in her mouth and chomped down hard on it. She smiled. Just like that man in her memory told her to.

* * *

><p>"Do you like comic books?" the young boy asked the Turk.<p>

"Yes," he replied.

"I have Archie, Superman, Batman, Spider man, and other heroes. Do you want to see them?"

"Okay."

Noah ran upstairs to go and retrieve his comic book collections.

The convicts, since they didn't have anyplace to go in this plague ridden country, had chosen to stay with the Smiths. To them, it was better than being in prison, or in the streets. The food was delicious. The beds were comfy. The house's big. Yes, it is nice to be guests over there.

"Here they are," the boy announced to the Turk.

And so the Turk and the boy sat on the living room floor and read comic books together.

* * *

><p>"Um, Rachael, what are these?" the scar faced man asked as a furry creature crawled over his thigh.<p>

"Kitties," she said. "Found them someplace. In some box. Mother's with them."

"They're adorable," Gloria said while holding the mother cat. "I wish you would have told us that you were going to walk around for a bit, though."

"You had us very worried," Tony added.

"Sorry," she said.

"Where did you get that injury on hand from?" Tony asked.

"Cat scratched me."

"Mmhmm. Well, be careful next time," he told her. Her response was fast, to say the least. It made it seemed like she was hiding something. He might have to check with her later.

Scarface sat on the couple's couch, playing with a kitten, while waiting for Stiltskin to get done with talking to Whitey. It had something to do with apologizing and Rachael disappearing for a while. He's not really sure. Oh well, it usually means that Whitey is in trouble, which now that he thought of it, was actually pretty satisfactory. Nothing like sitting back and watching life handle all your problems. Especially when it involves punishment for that creepy albino. He didn't even have to do anything. He doesn't have the guts to do anything. Which is why he always got someone else to do it for him. He remembered fondly that day in some bar and a woman was crying.

_"Hey, there's no need to cry. Have some fun," he told the woman._

_ "Yes, th-there is," she sobbed._

_ "What happened?"_

_ "...called me a whore and a slut and...and said that I slept with a whole lot of men and that I paid them."_

_ "Do you have a boyfriend?"_

_ "Yes. Why do you want to know?"_

_ "I just think that he should be here, comforting you. Where's is he?"_

_ "Over there."_

_ Scarface pushed through the crowd to get to a small table, which had a few dudes sitting, some laughing, others smoking, playing a card game, and others drinking beer. He stopped right in front of the table and slammed his hands down on it._

_ "Yes?" the woman's boyfriend asked. His group of buddies stopped what they were doing and watched the scar faced man._

_ "You see that man over there?" Scarface pointed to a tall man, standing in a corner, hunched and staring intently at anyone who walked right by him._

_ "Yeah."_

_ "He's been calling your girlfriend a slut and said that she paid men to have sex with her, so now she's crying."_

_ "That sonofabitch," the man growled. He stalked towards the white-haired man and punched him in the face._

_ The albino held his nose after the punched. He looked at his attacker only to receive another punch to the face and a knee-kick to his stomach, knocking him down. The man kept kicking Whitey while he was on the floor, trying to crawl away. He felt something crunched in one of his hand and saw that another man was standing on it. Pain traveled up his arm, to his spine. His arm jerked, he tried to pull his hand free from the other man, but the other man just looked at him and pushed his foot even more on Whitey's hand._

_ 'Not again.'_

_ The man's buddies came over and started to punch and kick the albino. One man pulled the albino's head up and the other kicked him in the jaw which caused the albino's mouth to close and he ended up biting his tongue as a result. The woman's boyfriend grabbed the albino's hair and bashed his head onto the wooded floor, over and over and over, causing the albino's vision to become fuzzy. Once they were done with him, the crying-woman's boyfriend spat on his bloody, bruised face._

_ Whitey's vision cleared and he saw that there was a crowd that was watching him. Faces, he saw their faces. Most of them were laughing. At him, he believed. No, they were laughing at him. Laughing at the incompetent man who couldn't even fight back. Then his vision got blurry again, he could barely see their faces, he could still hear them laughing though, and he pushed himself up. He ran, pushing others out of his way until he reached a door. He opened it, then ran out, not even bothering to close it on the way out._

_Scarface laughed at the whole ordeal, glad that his plan worked. This was one the best nights ever, other then that ladies' bathroom incident._

Good times indeed.

Everyone moved away from Scarface once they saw him grinning, except for Rachael, she was...smiling as well.

"What?"

Finally, after an hour or so of talking, Scarface, and Rachael, were allowed back inside their room. Rachael was trying to give Whitey a kitten, who reluctantly took it after Stiltskin glared at him. He held the kitten by the neck and looked at the small fuzzball with contempt. It, oblivious to the meaning behind the weird man's stare, simply stared back, mewling. He stared at it some more, perhaps thinking he could kill by just glaring at it. The kitten stared back. Eh, it's sort of cute. It sort of reminds him of his pet rabbit he had as a child.

"Poor Speckles," he said without realizing.

"Who's Speckles?" Scarface asked. He didn't get an answer. Why would the albino say something about Speckles if he wasn't even going to explain himself? All the albino did was glance at him, then he gave Rachael back the kitten, who put it in a box with the mother and the rest of the kittens. It is going to be so interesting to find out just who the hell Speckles was. It must be some pet the albino had. The albino, with a pet, now that's something.

* * *

><p>"I'm just as surprised as you are," Tony told Gloria. "I'd thought that they would have attempted to kill us a when they had the chance."<p>

He turned off the lamp that was on his side of the bed.

"I just don't think it's wise leaving Rachael with them," Gloria replied.

"You still don't trust him, do you?" he asked.

"What do you think?"

"I think that you scare him."

"Really? How?" she asked.

"You beat him up with your umbrella."

"You shot him through the neck."

"It's hard to believe he's still alive. I don't think Stiltskin's telling the whole truth," he said.

"He seem dead to me."

"Exactly, how could he have survived being shot right through the neck and that fall? The blood loss should have killed him. Anyways, even if we were to keep Rachael away from them, she would probably find some way just to be with him. She seems very attached to him."

"I still don't get what she sees in him. He isn't kind or smart, like you are. He's nothing but a criminal, a..."

"Low-life thug, who kills for a living. I know, I know. Rachael will tell you if you ask. Besides, she's a strange girl. Well, goodnight."

"Goodnight," she kissed him the lips.

* * *

><p>He couldn't save anyone. The black-bearded man look at the gun in his shaking hand. He couldn't save him. He felt like a failure. He was a failure. He no longer bother with cleaning up his house. They were all dead anyways, so what's the point. He focus his attention on the roaches that were eating his left over food. It didn't matter. The guy he wanted to see is probably dead, so what's the point of living? He couldn't save him. Can he really do it? Can he really end his own life? He couldn't save him. He put the barrel of the gun next to his temples and...he couldn't pull the trigger. He wanted to, but then he thought about seeing that man. Yes, he, Earl, was going to find that man and say he's sorry for all that he's done. He's not going to die before he does.<p>

* * *

><p>"Hey, Commander," said Joshua Brown. "Um, remember that order...the one to send that super flu to some other countries, I wasn't really paying attention to that part, well, anyways...they want you to quit stalling and hurry it up."<p>

Joshua waited for Commander's response. Commander was a nickname given to the man sitting at the clutter desk in the small room. For a moment, Commander did nothing but stare at the wall in front of him, the wall with that one big hole that he has been meaning to fix for quite some time. It's been there since he got there. He had been told that there was a rodent infection, but it was taken care of.

"I will," Commander said solemnly. "I will."

Joshua abruptly left the room once he saw Commander with his eyes cast down and his hand clasped in front of his face. Whenever he does that, it usually means that he wants to think. And if someone were to bother him, they would have to pay a hefty price.

"May God forgive us," Commander sobbed out, as he put his head on the desk and cried. Damn sensitive people. Always crying and not getting any work done.

"Yes, may God forgive all of us," Joshua said softly after he heard the man sobbing. 'It's one thing to have the United States plague ridden, but to actually, purposely, send it to other countries, just because the government doesn't like them. Just to cover up their mistake and make it seem like the virus came naturally when they in fact created that wretched thing, no.'

Commander was not the one who would actually send the virus to the other countries himself. No, he was to give **them** the message so that **they** would send it. He considered himself just as guilty though. This isn't the worse he's done. No, it's far from it.

He stood up and walked to a door, different from the one Joshua used, and unlocked it.  
>The hallway was clean, as always, he always cleaned it after he was done. The florescent lights were starting to give him a headache. He ignored it and stopped right in front of a door with neatly painted numbers on them. He unlocked and was greeted by a small boy.<p>

"How are you today," he said, patting the small child on his head.

"Cold, father, but good," the boy responded.

"Hmm, I will have to tell them to get you some more clothes then," the child only had a thin shirt on and some shirt. The shirt, unlike the floor and walls on the hallway, were dirty. It's hard getting rid of those stains. "I need you to be still, while I put this in," he said gently as he got out a syringe.

"Yes father," the small child held out his arm and allowed the man to inject an unknown substance into his bloodstream.

"That's a good boy," Commander gave the boy a cherry flavor lollipop, the boys favorite. He gently lifted up the boy and put him on the bed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight father."

Commander locked the door behind him and walked down the freezing hallway. He ignored the screaming children, who had saw him, begging him to comfort them. He ignore the coughing heard from the room that he was just in. He had to do this. He needed for the children to build up an immunity to the plague, which is why he's injecting it in them. He just hopes that the boy would survive the night. Not like the others. He hopes the boy does not turn in one of those failed subjects.

Yes, this is possibly the worse that he's ever done. Experimenting on children. Most didn't live, and some of them that do, the results aren't pretty. Commander doesn't even deserve a real name.

He then wondered how General Starkey is holding up. General Starkey was ordering the slaughterings, execution of others. Mostly news anchors and such to cover up for the released virus. When Commander first met Starkey, he thought he was a pretty likable man. He was so considerate of others and tried to help them out. He was kind to Commander, even after all those thing Commander had done. Which made it worse when Commander thought about it. Poor Starkey.


	11. WTF Show

**I do not own Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, nor do I own Slender Man or Candle Cove. They belong to their respectable owners.  
><strong>

**Did I mention that Slender Man and Candle Cove are in this? Because they totally are.**

Gloria searched frenziedly for an escape. There was none. The pale man was blocking her way to freedom. He held a loaded rifle in one hand. He shot, he killed her loved ones. All of them. He killed innocent people and for what reason? They didn't do anything to deserve such a fate. She had hidden and watched him kill. She wanted to scream, but that would mean her death.

She heard them screaming, some did not even have the chance to make a sound as he killed them. She ran out from where she was, a closet, and the man noticed. He always noticed, and he always followed. She ran into a dark and moldy room with no windows and no furniture. No escape. There was no way for her to escape. This always happens to her. Why was there so much blood on the floor? Why are so many people dead? It's all his fault. Everything was his fault, and he did not care. He did not care about the lives he ruined, the lives that he took away without a second thought. He simply did not care about the lives of others. He was a cold hearted bastard. He even killed the girl, who has been nothing but kind to him. She didn't even scream. It wasn't because she was caught off guard. Gloria knew that was not the case. The girl did not scream because she was too busy giggling. Cackling like some mad hyena. The man had to stab her; she was too close for him to shoot, so he stabbed her in the back of the neck. His expression did not changed when he did that.

Now she's trying to find a way to escape, even if she knew it was futile. The man kept walking towards her. His shirt was covered in blood, most of it was near his neck.

Gloria backed into the wall. The man kept walking. She closed her eyes tightly and waited for death. Instead, she heard something fall to the floor and she opened her eyes.

The white-haired man had his own hands on his neck, trying to get the other person's hands off. He tried scratching the other man hands but the other man would not let go. The other man lifted the albino off the floor, squeezing Whitey's neck harder and harder, turning his facial color a shade of blue.

No matter how hard Whitey tried to get those hands off his neck, no matter how hard he tried to take in a breath, it was all useless.

He looked at Gloria pleadingly. PLEADINGLY! He actually expected the woman that he tormented to help him. To save him, even after all he did to her and everyone else.

She was not going to do a thing to help him. He doesn't deserve any type of help from anyone.

"...h..el...," He managed to get out before the mysterious man tightened his grip on the albino's neck.

He actually looked scared. Terrified. He didn't even bother to mask that fear. Serves him right. Bastard killed her friends.

Gloria was relieved that someone had stop the albino before he killed her. She was also quite glad that someone was giving the albino his just deserts. Yet at the same time, she was afraid. Why? Why should she be afraid of the man that was saving her life? Why should she feel sick to her stomach watching Whitey getting the punishment he deserves?

"Baby can you dig your man~," the mysterious man sang.

Why was he singing anyways? Why isn't he trying to kill the albino faster? Just hurry already.

"He's a righteous man~," Gloria could not take her eyes off of the scene taking place, even when she heard that terrifying snap and saw that the albino's hand hanged limply at his sides, his neck bent at an odd angle, with shock evident on his face.

The mysterious man callously threw Whitey on the floor and Gloria got a good look at the man who saved her.

She couldn't see most of his face, for it was obscured by the black cloak he was wearing, but she did see his unnatural grin. He had an ax resting in his belt. He calmly took out the ax and waltzed towards Gloria, still singing the same tune from before.

"Hello Gloria," he cooed, savoring her frightened expression. "Aren't you going to thank me?"

"Who are you?"

"Does it really matter? I'm thinking I should just, hmm, cause you pain," he told her. His voice was strangely soothing. "Unless, you worship me. Join me. If you don't, you'll end up as that man. If you do, I'll get rid of that man for real."

"Don't listen to him," a woman said.

The scenery changed from a cold, damp room with no windows to a wide open cornfield.

"You leave her alone," the old woman shouted.

"What can you do?" the man in black asked. He lifted up his ax, mostly out of anger and some of it was to scare Gloria, and swung it down. Before he had a chance to hit her, Gloria woke up.

"Just a dream," she mumble.

"Care to tell me about it?" Tony asked.

She told him the dream that she had. She told him how the dream was like the ones before, the albino always went on a murderous rampage right when they were having a party, celebrating them preventing a murder, but this one was different. Normally, she would wake up before he killed her, but someone came to her rescue. She told him how the man in black offered to get rid of Whitey if she praised him, but someone warned her against it. Next thing she knew the man in black swung his ax toward her. Then she woke up.

"It felt so real," Gloria said.

"It was just a dream, you're safe now," Tony said soothingly.

^#The#Man#In#Black#Killed#The#Man#In#White#I'm#sorry#that#was#horrible#^

Charlie pulled Wanda's arm to get her attention. He kept pointing to the house next door.

"Yes Charlie?"

Charlie pointed to the house again. A kind old woman lived there. Ever since the siblings and Sally came here, she would always give Charlie some sweets, yet for some reason she has not left her house in days. Charlie wanted to know why.

Wanda knew why Ms. Pennington hasn't left her house, she saw the old women having a terrible coughing fit. Another loss. It seemed like more and more people were dying everyday. If it wasn't the plague that was killing people, it was other people that were doing the killings.

She remembered watching the brutality of what happened.

_Wanda sat on the couch, flipping through the channels, trying to find something suitable to watch when she stopped on one channel. _

_People, most of them were in loincloths. How peculiar. They were calling out names. It was sort of like those talk-shows, where the audiences gets to participate. _

_Why are the holding guns? They dragged a man on stage. His face was puffy, his nose covered in snot. He tried to free himself from the strong grip of the other man. _

_Oh god. Wanda winced away from the screen when a man in the loincloth shot the scared man, his gray matter spraying all over the place. They were calling out more names. People in uniform were dragged to the stage and were shot execution style._

_Wanda covered her eyes, peeking only to close her eyes again._

_Men came into the studio, shooting at the game hosts. One man was shot in the face, blood sprayed everywhere. He kept running though. His brain had not yet gave the message for his leg to stop working. It wasn't when he reached the doors that he fell, dead._

_The camera started distort and the program went off, showing instead a picture of a smiling flower and words that said that they were having technicality difficulties._

"_Wanda," she felt Sally sit by her on the sofa to comfort her. "I'm sorry," Sally told her, like she was the one who caused the people to die._

"_Why?"_

"Wanda," Sara called out.

"I'm sorry," Wanda said.

"Dad wants you to help him cook dinner," Sara relayed the message.

"I'll get to it, then."

Sara watched her older sister go back into the house. Wanda has been acting weird lately. Ever since a few days ago, she's been in some sort of a daze. Sally said it had something to do with the news. What's new about that? All they talked about these days was the Flu, and how it did not exist.

As if. If the Flu didn't exist then what's causing everyone to fall sick and die? People were falling like flies and the government still tried to deny the existence of any flu. They can't pretend forever. In the end, they will have to face reality and owe up to their mistakes.

Sara shook her head. Charlie was trying to pull her to Ms. Pennington's house. Nobody bothered to tell him what happened to her.

"Charlie," Sara went along with him, unable to tell him the bad news. She needs to tell him though.

Charlie knocked on the neighbor's door. No one replied. He knocked on it again and garnered nothing. His knocking soon evolved in banging.

"Charlie," he ignored Sara's protest. He was going to get to the bottom of this.

He wanted to see Ms. Pennington so bad. She reminded him of his aunt Willie, who took care of him.

"Charlie, stop!" Sara grabbed his red hand. "She's not there anymore."

Charlie looked at her dejectedly.

"Let's go home," she held his hand and guided him home.

When they arrived home, they were greeted by the smell of sauce being cooked.

"Welcome home," Sally greeted. "Your dad and Wanda are making spaghetti for supper.

"Sounds good," Sara told her. The group went back inside their house to wait for dinner.

Since Sally really did not want to go back to her home town, the family allowed her to stay. She's glad they did. It's not like anyone was waiting her over there.

The family has come a long way. Wanda told her father everything that happened, Charlie made a few friends(mostly elderly people), and Sara's trying to patch up her relationship with her father.

Sally like this little family.

While everyone was chatting in the Godfrey's house, Ms. Pennington was unable to get out of her bed. She had heard someone knocking on her door and she tried to call out to that person, but all that came out of her was a handful of bloody phlegm.

It landed right on her favorite quilt. It's been landing on her favorite quilt for quite some time.

Everything felt so hot right now to her. She should tell her husband to stop putting the heat on so high. He was always putting it on so high. And he was always late to come home each and every night. He told her it was work. Work was keeping him from coming home early and enjoying her cooked dinner. She knew better. She saw him flirting with a red-headed woman. She saw them kissing. She confronted him. They got into an argument. He packed up his belongings and left her on the floor, crying. He'll pay for this. Ms. Pennington has already gotten some people to make sure he pays for what hew did to her.

Ms. Pennington took her last breath. She apologized before she died.

^#Insert#witty#remark#here#^

Stiltskin lied down in his bed, events replaying in his head.

_Stiltskin asked Whitey what he thought of the girl._

"_Too clingy," was all Whitey said. He kept rubbing his neck._

"_I wonder how that feels," Stiltskin deadpanned._

"_Annoying," Whitey said, not quite catching the sarcasm in his boss's voice. His neck must have itched, since he kept rubbing his neck like that._

_'Dimwit. You're worse than she is. She has the benefit of being a child. You on the other hand have no excuse. You are an adult. Start acting like one. They were right when they told me that I spoiled you.'_

_Stiltskin left his room to go walk around. Being stuck in one room all day, many days, is not good for one's health. He needs exercise. He needs sunlight, and fresh air._

"_Why do you like Whitey?" Stiltskin heard Gloria asking Rachael. She said his name with much spite. Who could blame her, after all that he did to her, and to numerous other people._

_'He's not that bad of a guy. Sure he kills others, but that doesn't mean he's outright bad. The man's pretty damn loyal. To me he is.'_

"_Fun to follow. Want him to smile," Rachael answered. "Reminds me of powdered doughnuts. Like those. Rupert Stiltskin's from book. Rumpelstiltskin. Like that story."_

_Stiltskin tried to stop the image from entering his mind. No, he should focus on the conversation instead._

"_Doesn't he scare you?" That guy scares everyone. Everyone excluding Stiltskin. Even then, Stiltskin can't help but admit that the guy is a little creepy._

"_There are much more scarier things out there," Rachael said bluntly. Her eyes were glazed, as if she were here physically, but on a different planet mentally. She had a half-hearted grin on her face. "One of them has already shown up."_

"_Rachael?" Gloria grew concerned._

"_Yes?" Rachael snapped out of the trance she was in._

"_Nevermind," Gloria told her._

"_Alright," Rachael said cheerfully, which was different from that previous mood. Seriously, what was that all about? It's like some cliché for a horror movie where one of the characters warn about some forthcoming doom, but is cryptic about it. Never helpful._

_He had never seen Rachael like that before. _

'What does she mean by scarier things, and that one has already shown up? There are more?'

Thinking will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now he has to sleep. He needs to sleep. Yes, sleep sounded excellent.

^#There#is#nothing#^

This place again. He knew this place well. How could Stiltskin ever forget this place?

His friends dared him to come here. They said if he stayed in there for an hour then they would give him money. He really needs that money.

They would always tell him stories that their parents and grandparents told them. It was about some faerie that snatched away naughty children. Tall and lanky was that faerie who would reside in the woods.

Stiltskin had nothing to be afraid of, he was always a good child. He did what his parents told him to and worked hard.

He turned around. He thought he heard a snap, like someone had stepped on a twig. There was nobody.

They told him that the faerie was very sneaky. You'd think he was right behind you, when he was always in front of you, waiting. He would outstretch his arms for you and wait. Then he would take you away to where the other children were.

Another snap. Nobody's there.

They said that the children were never seen again. They said that their grandparents knew of a child who was kidnapped by that faerie.

Something was definitely following him, but whenever he tried to find the culprit, nobody was there.

Their grandparents told them that it doesn't matter which woods you was in, Germany, America, that faerie will always get you.

It was getting dark outside. How long had he been out here? He was sure it was more than an hour, but if he came back too soon, then he would not get the money. He would have to keep walking.

He was getting hungry out here. He should have brought something to eat, but remembered that he barely had any food.

His family was dirt poor. Plain and simple. Most days, they would have to go for days just eating one meal each day. Sometimes, if they saved enough money, they would buy treats.

His older siblings were trying their hardest to help out with the lack of money that they had. Although, right now they seemed to be getting a little more money. He tried asking them where, but they refused to answer.

He would have to follow them to get an answer.

Footsteps. Behind him. Nobody was there.

His perception heightened. He searched for something, anything that was making all that noise.

Screaming.

He heard an ear piercing scream. He wanted it to stop. That man in front of him with some ax was grinning at him. He wanted the screaming to stop. He didn't know that the screams came from his own mouth.

He certainly wasn't expecting this man right in front of him.

He ran. Ran far away from that man as possible. He knew that the man was dangerous and wouldn't bat an eye as he killed a poor, helpless child.

The forest was getting thicker, branches and twigs scratching young Rupert's face. He had to get far, far away from that man.

He chose to forget the money he might have earned in favor of his survival. He can get the money an other day.

What? What is that?

Across from young Stiltskin was that thing. It was here to snatch him and take him away.

He felt sick. He wanted to get rid of the contents in his stomach. Actually, he did just that. Everything seemed like a blur to him. He staggered around, right after throwing up, and saw The Man in Black. The stress of being chased by some madman and having a faerie known to snatch children was enough to cause young Rupert Stiltskin to faint.

The faerie tilted its head in bewilderment once it saw The Man in Black. It certainly wasn't expecting this.

The man looked at the faerie and said, "You again?" He watched the faerie disappeared right in front of him. It wasn't even flashy. "Figures," he spat.

The man shrugged and left. It's not that fun when they're unconscious. He liked to play with his prey, like a cat would do when it caught a mouse.

Ah, yes. Mice. They were mice and he was the cat to catch them. He chuckled at that thought. It was only a matter of time before his plan worked. He would have to watch out for that old hag though, but he has Nadine and fat-ass, crybaby Harold to do his bidding,

Oh, the children. He's certain that he could make use of them. It's certainly different from the other worlds, despite his memories being kind of vague, he is sure that there were no _children_. There were also none of those things: creatures and organizations, so he'll use them as well.

This time it will work. He's sure of it.

#I#wonder#if#I#can#make#a#side#story#with#these#line#breaks#

This show was Rachael's favorite. She had seen it before, but had stopped watching it, so in actuality, it was old to her. She sat in front of the couch, watching the show on the television. It was very, enthralling seems like a good word, and she could not take her eyes off the television.

The show was a very entertaining, although somewhat dark, children show.

Rachael missed watching this show. She used to watch it all the time until that man and lady told her to stop because it interfered with her bedtime.

She always loved that scared puppet-pirate, Percy. It was always so afraid of trying new things. Even though his appearance was unnerving, it seemed like he was made with spare doll parts, Rachael thought he was kind of cute and so was that girl, Janice.

This episode was fairly normal. Janice and Percy were out looking for treasure until the Skin-Taker showed up. God, he used to give Rachael nightmares when she was younger. She was so afraid that he would tear her skin off and eat it right in front of her.

One of the puppet got his eyes torn out. That's okay, Rachael wasn't planning on sleeping anyway. That blood almost looked realistic. It's like they got a slightly better effects for blood. Why would there be blood in a children show? Unless, this show wasn't for children.

She glanced around her, hoping the grown ups were still asleep. One of them tossed and turned, probably having a nightmare. The other two were sleeping soundly.

The Laughingstock was telling Percy to go somewhere. As always he made up some excuse to not go.

Rachael wondered what happened to that puppet who lost his eyes. Not one word was said about the eye-loss puppet. Did they just forget about it?

Rachael noticed that Janice eyes were red and puffy, but her voice was somehow cheerful. She kept looking at the camera, terrified.

Then Horace the Horrible showed up and tried to kidnap Janice, so the Skin-Taker could have more children skin.

The screen went black for a moment, and it then cut to Percy flailing his arms, screaming about having to save Janice. His arms fell off.

Rachael laughed but then stopped.

The scene paused, and then skip into another scene. The puppets were laughing while a child cried. It sounded like real crying to Rachael. One of the puppet's head pop right off, and the other's jaw flew off. They kept coming closer to the screen and it paused again.

Rachael wondered if something was wrong with the television.

"Join us," something had said.

Who said that? Everyone else was asleep.

She looked at the screen. The puppets were watching her. For some reason everything else was unmoving, except for a select number of puppets. They were waiting for an answer.

They kept coming closer, it looked like they were about to burst out of the television.

Rachael scrambled backwards, her back hit the couch behind her. She hoped she didn't wake him up. Should she wake him up? No, the last time she did that, it had stopped. They were very crafty, but once the adults went back to sleep it would happen again.

She took one more glance at the television before climbing on top of the sleeping person. He's still asleep? Heh, it's kind of funny that he sleeps like that. He doesn't look as threatening when he's asleep.

They were coming closer. Rachael stood up, on Whitey, and jumped off the couch and ran to her bed. She pulled the covers over her head.

Whitey woke up. He was a bit upset that someone had jumped on him. Rachael always does things like that. He swears she's doing that on propose. Little brat, that hurt.

He could get up, maybe choke her, make it look like an accident. He honestly doesn't know why Stiltskin chose to stay with these people. Unfortunately, whatever Stiltskin does, he does also. Whatever Stiltskin orders, he follows. Then again, he owes Stiltskin big time. Just, why does Stiltskin get attached to children so easily?

Whitey Jackson hated children. Actually, hate is such a strong word, he just doesn't care about them. He would kill one, if it ever got in the way, but Stiltskin won't let him.

Just as long as he doesn't think about it, killing a child would be easy. Killing anyone is easy.

_Nothing_. He doesn't really feel anything. Except for the minor irritation and cold anger, he feels practically nothing.

Why does he kill (live)?

'Children are not always innocent.'

The TV was still on. First she jumps on him and now this.

The show was about some puppets reciting jokes to each other and hitting each other with toy swords.

He turned his head and saw Rachael shivering underneath the covers. She's afraid of a children show?

What's so scary about this show? It's just a low-budget show.

Did the doll just look at him? Challenging him to a fight? Bastard.

When did Scarface wake up? He's watching the show too.

Both the hit-men watched the adventures of the puppets, bored. The light from the TV, plus the darkness of the room, gave them a bit of a headache.

"Can you help us find Janice?" Percy gave the screen one good long look and waited for an answer.

Normally, after a couple of seconds, the character would say good, and then go out on an adventure, regardless if anyone answered them. Percy seemed to be taking his time, waiting for an answer.

That time he took waiting for an answer could have easily been spent, you know, actually looking for Janice. One has to wonder if he wants Janice dead but doesn't have the guts to actually kill her. Guess who's just like that.

Percy was standing there for about a minute or so, waiting.

After not receiving a reply, Percy said good and walked down the dirt road.

"What was that?"

"Some show that Rachael likes to watch."

"Where is she?"

"On the bed, scared."

Scarface turned his head to see Rachael poke her head out from her cover. She threw off the covers and skipped to the couch. She put her hands on the couch and jumped over it, almost hitting the two hit-men.

"Hi," she said, a big smile on her face. It looked like her face would split open from the smile she wore.

The two hit-men turned there attention to the screen. Janice was talking to some goon, trying to persuade it by saying some bullshit about love and having a heart.

If someone tries to pull that on them, chances are that person wouldn't be able to finish before they killed her, since females are the ones that do that. At least in the movies they do.

Percy found Janice. Hooray! Now everyone can celebrate a job well done.

The two hit-men, and Rachael's eyes widen as someone put a sword through Percy.

"That was unexpected," said Scarface.

The screen started to distort. Blood, ketchup?, was everywhere. The puppets were screaming, flapping their arms and spazzing out. Janice was moaning and crying and screaming, and she would not stop. The Skin-Taker was spouting out nonsense.

They couldn't stop watching it. This was to worst children show, that anyone had ever seen. Worst as in, What the hell is this?

Janice was still screaming. If she screams too much, she might lose her voice.

The hit-men now knew why Rachael was huddled on her bed. This show was a lie. It started out cute, but then things went straight to hell. What kind of person made this show? A very twisted person made this show, that's who.

They couldn't take it anymore. The screams, it hurt, so somebody turned off the television.

"The hell?" Whitey said long after the TV was turned off. He shifted his eyes to see Rachael rocking back and forth, smiling and humming some tune to herself. Between her hummings, she would burst into a fit of giggles.

The tune was strangely eerie, like it was from some horror movie.

That girl seriously needs medicine. Pills would be better.

They sat there, unmoving, until the sun rose.

Stiltskin woke up and saw the three sitting in front of the couch, staring at the TV.

"Jackson, how many times do I have to tell not to stay up watching TV all night?"

"Sorry boss," she's never heard him say sorry before.

When she was little, they used to make her say sorry all the time but they were nice.

White. He reminded her so much of those people. White clad people, white walls, white rooms.

Red floors. No they were white floors with red paint on them. Such a silly little girl for thinking they were red. She wonder who spilled all that paint on the floor.

They were so nice to her, even if they prevented her from doing something that she wanted, but it was for her own protection.

Is he nice like they were?

She would also play some very fun games. Although the people didn't think they were fun. She didn't understand why the nice man looked so scared when she was playing a game and the old couple would cry and she wished her mom was here with her so they could play together but her mom's on vacation but she said she'll come back so she has to wait for her mommy. Yet they were keeping her away from mommy but they were kind and gentle, even if they were a little rough, but it was entirely her fault. She was trying to do something bad so they had to stop her.

"Rachael," the word brought her back to reality.

Why was everyone staring at her? The old man looked disappointed. Was she supposed to do something, but she wasn't listening, when he told her to do something? How should she diffuse this situation that she brought herself into?

Her reaction reminded him so much of how he was when he was at school and the teacher would ask him a question and he wouldn't answer her, so now all the other kids thought he was dumb. Which was true, because if he was smart enough he would have been able to answer those questions. He would not fall for everything they told him like a fool. He would not fail at everything save for killing, and stalking and breaking into houses and scaring and stealing and hurting. And like that one person said, "If you're good at something, do it." Then that person cackled madly, using pies with explosives inside them to terrorize some civilians. At a bank. He wasn't even doing it for the money. He did it because he thought it was funny. The man was some sort of deranged clown.

He called himself something that started with a J.

He did fail one mission though, but it wasn't his fault. He's not to blame, even when he knew that they blamed him.

He'll get it right next time.

"Children show scared me," Rachael said finally.

^#I#swear#my#chapters#are#getting#longer#and#longer#^

Brick Tamland got out of bed. He got out and walked to his bathroom to do his morning business.

Today was work day, so he had to get ready. He took a shower so he would look clean and presentable when he told how the weather was like.

He dried himself off and combed his hair. He picked his nicest suit and got dress. It was a blue suit, with a blue tie. He'll wear the green one the next day.

He made himself some breakfast. He got two slices of bread, put some butter on them and then put them in the toaster. They didn't taste as good as when his mom used to make them, but he's an adult now and so he has to make his own food.

He finished his meal and left for work. He's the weather man and he's very good. That's what they told him. He's the best weather man there ever was.

He said bye to his neighbor, but he didn't get any replies back. They haven't been answering for a few days. Or was it weeks? He never really was good at remembering how long things went on.

He walked.

Inside the news station he greeted his fellow coworkers. Once again he got no replies.

John has been sitting his chair, face flat on his desk, for weeks. He must really like his desk. Too bad, because he needs to take a shower. He was starting to stink up the place. Him and some other people.

Brick walked some more. He stepped in something sticky, but he will have to clean it up later.

He walked some more until he reached the place he was supposed to be at. And he waited.


End file.
